Jakarta – Indonesia dismissed Friday a Dutch parliament-commissioned study that cast doubt on the legality of its rule in the province of Papua, saying the report's "substance was no longer relevant."

"The status of Papua as an integral part of Indonesia has already been recognized by the world, including the Netherlands itself," said Yuri Thamrin, a spokesman for Indonesia's Foreign Ministry. When Indonesia proclaimed independence from the Netherlands in August 1945, it declared Papua as its territory although the region on the western half of New Guinea island was still under Dutch rule.

After a spate of military clashes, the two countries agreed in 1962 to place Papua under UN rule. The UN was to have organized a democratic referendum on self-determination for all Papuans in 1969, but it quickly relinquished the territory to Jakarta.

The Indonesian authorities then polled 1,022 hand-picked representatives on behalf of the population of about 700,000 people. They called the vote "the Act of Free Choice."

On Tuesday, Dutch historian Pieter Drooglever issued a report on the process, which was commissioned by parliament in 1999. In the report, he called the vote a "sham."

"A press-ganged electorate acting under a great deal of pressure appeared to have unanimously declared itself in favor of Indonesia," he wrote in a summary of the report.

Thamrin dismissed the report, saying "such a study just has academic worth but its substance is no longer relevant."

Theo Sambuaga, chairman of the Indonesian parliament's commission on foreign affairs, said he was confident "the Dutch government will not be influenced by the study."

Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot was reported to have dismissed the report as "superfluous." Papua is currently home to a small separatist army that launches periodic attacks on Indonesian security forces, which have been accused for years of human rights abuses. Its population is chiefly Christian or animist, unlike mostly Muslim Indonesia.