Chris McCall, Jakarta – West Papua's separatist presidium fears it will be declared illegal and its members arrested under a new operation ordered by the region's police chief.

On July 17, police chief Inspector General Made Mangku Pastika issued a statement announcing operation Adil Matoa. The 60-day operation, beginning from an unspecified date yet to be announced, is purportedly aimed at creating a peace zone and keeping the restive province within Indonesia.

The aim of this special operation is to form and maintain Papua as a zone of peace and an integral part of the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia, the statement read.

It has gone hand in hand with increased military activity in parts of the province. The statement came as the pro-independence Papuan Presidium Council was arranging to declare its own peace zone in the troubled region next month.

Presidium secretary Thaha Alhamid said the statement's specific referral to separatists and groups using human rights as a cover for such activities clearly meant the presidium and the wider Papuan Panel would be labelled as separatists.

He said he and three co-accused were acquitted in May of subversion charges after the judge concluded there was no proof that any crime had been committed. This statement was an attempt, he said, to link the peace zone irreconcilably with integration with Indonesia.

Although the presidium and its affiliated bodies are campaigning for independence and revision of the infamous 1969 Act of Free Choice which brought West Papua permanently into Indonesia, its leaders have always stressed non-violence and respect for Indonesian law, for now.