Jakarta – Indonesia will deploy 2,000 more troops in its easternmost province of Papua after recent anti-government protests left five people dead.

Dozens of others were injured by spears and arrows during violent protests last month in Timika, a mining town 3,700km east of Jakarta, over a controversial plan to divide Papua into three provinces: Papua, Central Papua and West Papua.

In the latest sign of Indonesia's readiness to use military force to stifle political dissent, the military chief, General Endriartono Sutarto, said in a statement that the current garrison in the province would be reinforced by four extra battalions that would be dispatched immediately.

He blamed outsiders for stoking the latest violence in Timika. "Noting that the Papuans are simple people, the military believes that there must be outside provocateurs behind the clashes," he said in a written statement to Parliament on Wednesday.

Although he did not elaborate, the country's top brass has long blamed the Free Papua Movement for the anti-government violence in the vast mountainous province. The movement is said to comprise a loose grouping of tribesmen who have waged a low-level struggle for decades against Jakarta's rule.

However, local human rights groups accuse the military of using the threat of armed separatists to clamp down on the resource-rich province.