Christian Motte & Nurfika Osman – Papua authorities have decided to close down an immigration post at Skouw-Wutung on the country's border with Papua New Guinea, due to the province's deteriorating security situation, an official said on Tuesday.

"The immigration post will be reopened once security in the province improves," said Gusti Bagus, head of the legal sanction unit at the Papua Immigration Office in Jayapura, adding that the post was closed down on Monday morning.

According to Bagus, the shooting deaths of police in Tingginambut, Puncak Jaya district, and bomb attacks on the Abepura police station in the past two weeks have prompted authorities there to close down the Skouw-Wutung Immigration Office. "We do not know when we will reopen the post," Bagus said.

Violence intensified ahead of the April 9 legislative elections in Papua, where the separatist Free Papua Movement, or OPM, has been waging war for independence since the 1960s.

One police officer was killed and six others injured when armed men ambushed a police convoy in Tingginambut on April 15.

The attack came just days after armed groups, believed to be members of the OPM, attacked and killed four transmigrants in Wamena, Jayawijaya district.