Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – At least 23 people had starved to death in the remote Papuan highlands after fleeing a massive Indonesian military operation, church leaders claimed last night.

They pleaded for urgent action to end a crisis which began when the military stepped up its hunt for leaders of separatist rebel group, the Free Papua Movement or OPM.

Witnesses and human-rights activists said another 1000 villagers from the Puncak Jaya region had fled into the forests, bringing the total number of refugees with little food or water to almost 7000 people.

Some 500 Papuans protested outside parliament in Jayapura, the provincial capital, yesterday demanding that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono stop the military operation in Puncak Jaya, and allow humanitarian agencies to assist the starving villagers.

"They're still hiding in the forests because the soldiers are in their village and if they go back they are scared they will be suspected of being OPM, and the military will just shoot them," said Sofyan Yoman, the secretary General of Papua's Baptist Church.

Mr Yoman, who recently returned from a trip to the remote town of Mulia in Puncak Jaya, said that couriers sent from the forests gave local church leaders reports of the number of people who had starved to death.

However, he said the death toll could be even higher, as that initial report was now more than a fortnight old.

"They are sleeping in the rain, they're cold and it's hard to find food because the soldiers have killed their pigs and burnt their crops," Mr Yoman said.

Human rights group Els-Ham said an additional 900 troops had been sent to the region last Sunday.

Military officials were not available to comment on the allegations. Previously the military said it was hunting OPM rebels allegedly behind the ambush of six Indonesian workers, and the shooting of one soldier in separate incidences in September and October. They said local OPM leader Goliak Tabuni was responsible for the attacks.

The OPM has been fighting a sporadic guerilla war since 1969, when Papua, then known as Irian Jaya, was incorporated into Indonesia.

Mr Yoman said Goliak Tabuni was not an OPM member, but had been falsely accused of being one because he opposed the local military command's plan to build an airstrip on his family's land. "We don't have OPM here, only God's community. This is just a military fabrication," he said.

Els-ham alleged that Kopassus special forces troops shot Mecky Wenda, an Indonesian policeman stationed in Puncak Jaya on Monday, in order to claim that the region was under attack from the rebels.

He was the third person to be shot over the past week in almost the same location in Puncak Jaya, Els-Ham said.