The Uniting Church in Australia has called for dialogue and calm in the Indonesian province of Papua, in the wake of a violent demonstration which left four Indonesian security personnel dead.

The three policemen and a military intelligence officer were killed at a protest on Saturday by hundreds of demonstrators, mainly students, who claimed they were fighting off a police assault at Cendrawasih University in the provincial capital, Jayapura. The protest was demanding closure of the giant Freeport Mine, claiming it's multibillion-dollar profits are not benefitiing the people of Papua, which comprises the mainly Melanesian western half of New Guinea island.

Presenter/Interviewer: Bruce Hill

Speakers: John Ondowame, international spokesman for the OPM; Reverend Dr Dean Drayton, President of the Uniting Church in Australia

Hill: It's a violent upsurge in the Indonesian province, which has seen a low-level pro-independence insurgency by the Free Papua Movement, the OPM, for many years. The international spokesman for the OPM, John Ondowame, who' based in Vanuatu, says things are still very tense in Papua.

Ondowame: The situation in West Papua right now is very strictly controlled by Indonesian military and people are not allowed to move around, exercising their freedom of movement. Many demonstrators, including 73 people have been arrested. Some of the students now run away, hiding in the bush.

Hill: Well some of those students might have something to fear. At the protest, four Indonesian security personnel were killed, two of the bodies were actually doused with petrol and set on fire, and one had his skull crushed with a rock. This is a pretty violent sort of thing to happen?

Ondowame: It was a peaceful demonstration. They demanded the closure of Freeport mining because of reports it is responsible for human rights abuses, environmental destruction and lack of negotiation with the landowners, Amungme and Kamoro and the Papuans. Therefore people were angry and this anger had been there for many, many years.

Hill: It doesn't sound very peaceful if four security personnel were murdered?

Ondowame: It was provoked by Indonesian military because in the beginning, people, students, they sat down and addressed their grievances to the authorities. But when the Indonesians provoked the situation and they directly responded by demonstrating against the police.

Hill: Meanwhile, Papuan church leaders have appealed for outside help. Reverend Dr Dean Drayton, President of the Uniting Church in Australia, says they have a close relationship with the Evangelical Church in the Indonesian province, and they want to help raise their concerns internationally.

Drayton: The church leaders are saying to us very clearly, 'this is not about independence, it's about how can the autonomy of the province that's been promised by the Indonesian government, how can that be put into practice?' Because they feel that they are losing all that has been precious to them, and the levels of frustration are rising as that sense of loss and the use of resources of their province are not being adequately used within the province. They fear that that's just going to keep on continuing and they want that to stop.

Hill: So what's the Uniting Church in Australia doing in response to this?

Drayton: We are listening to what's happening, in regular communication, and when the invitation came or the request came that we in fact speak to the Australian government and to the Indonesian government, on the weekend at a national meeting of our standing committee we in fact are calling upon the Indonesian authorities to act responsibly and with restraint in Papua, and to offer more opportunities for dialogue with Papuan religious and community leaders.

Hill: Four people are dead, members of the security forces, are you concerned about that aspect of things?

Drayton: Of course because when people are killed we're not sure of all of the events that happened when we look from here. But clearly there were demonstrations which were reflecting the deep and rising levels of frustration of the indigenous people in Papua. And whatever happened in the confrontation, when it leads to in fact police being killed, and possibly students being killed, then we must be really concerned.