Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Papuans are growing increasingly concerned that the Indonesian military – boosted by its apparent success against rebels in Aceh – will crack down on Papua's independence movement.

Papua's capital, Jayapura, is abuzz with rumours that the military has begun sending additional troops to the province. While there is no proof of this, human rights groups say that the military's recent decision to send elite Kopassus troops to the province, to hunt down weapons stolen from a military store in Wamena, raised fears that more troops would be sent in.

Papuan leaders fear the Indonesian government's recent warnings that it will not tolerate separatists anywhere in the country indicate that it has been contemplating a military operation similar to the massive military operation launched in May to wipe out the separatist movement in Aceh.

Observers fear this week's fatal shooting of a separatist by security forces for raising an independence flag is a sign that the Indonesian government prefers to use military force rather than persuasion to deal with Papuan separatists. In the incident, which took place on Monday in the central highlands town of Wamena, two others were wounded and half a dozen men rounded up.

Meanwhile, the Papuan police chief last week claimed that 42 separatists had surrendered and wanted to end their fight for independence. But Andi Tagihuma, of the local human rights group Elsham, says the so-called guerillas had confessed that they were just ordinary Papuans who sometimes carried traditional weapons such as spears. Observers suspect the surrenders were staged to show that the security forces had little tolerance for separatists and to encourage the real guerillas to begin handing themselves in.

Western diplomats say Jakarta seems to be getting tougher on separatists and appears to have dropped its previous policy of enticing Papuans to drop their demands for independence by allowing them more self-government. "The government tolerance for separatism is at an all-time low," one western diplomat said.