Jakarta – A tribal war between two villages in the remote mountains of West Papua has left more than 100 people dead in the past year, the official Antara news agency reported Monday.

The conflict pits indigenous people from Wampe and Bilaga villages in the Puncak Jaya region of the Indonesian province, Antara said.

Peace had proved difficult to bring about because a Wampe leader was killed early in the fighting, meaning his followers would not accept a truce until they had killed the Bilage leader, Antara cited officials saying. A total 106 people have died since the blood feud erupted almost a year ago, a local official quoted by the news agency said.

The region is about 2,100 miles east of Jakarta, on the western half of New Guinea island. Some of its people live a near-Stone Age existence in the mountainous interior. The tribesmen traditionally use poison arrows and spears in their conflicts.

West Papua, formerly Irian Jaya, is Indonesia's largest province. The former Dutch colony was occupied in 1963 and incorporated into Indonesia six years later by an assembly of village chiefs.

Pro-independence activists say the process was a sham, and rebels belonging to the Free Papua Movement have been battling Indonesian rule ever since.

Until last year, Indonesia's army ran the province with an iron hand. Thousands of locals were killed and tortured during a series of anti-insurgency operations.