Jakarta – Gunmen apparently belonging to a separatist rebel group in Indonesia's Papua province attacked construction workers in a remote village, killing one of them and leaving five others missing, police said Tuesday.

One of two policemen guarding the workers at a school building was wounded by a gunshot during the pre-dawn attack early Monday in the district of Enarotali, in central Papua, said Brig. Gen. Tony Jakobus, deputy chief of the local police.

The area – some 3,200 kilometers northeast of Jakarta – has been the scene of separatist violence for more than three decades.

Speaking from his office in the provincial capital of Jayapura, Jakobus said he believed the five missing workers were being held captive. He identified the assailants, numbering up to 10 armed men, as a rebel group led by Titus Murib – who also goes by the name Kelly Kwalik. There was no immediate way to contact the rebels in Papua.

On April 4, Kwalik and his guerrillas attacked a military post in Wamena, about 400 kilometers east of Enarotali, killing two soldiers and one villager and stealing several guns.

Indonesia occupied the former Dutch colony on the western side of Papua New Guinea in 1963. Its sovereignty over the region was formalized in 1969 through a UN-sponsored referendum. Since then, a small group of guerrillas have been fighting for independence. The mineral-rich Papua, formerly Irian Jaya, is home to one of the world's largest gold mines – run by New Orleans-based Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc.