Sian Powell, Jakarta – Indonesian security forces continued to hunt for students in hiding in Papua's jungles yesterday.

While Jakarta furiously denied the asylum-seekers had been persecuted, the Indonesian navy confirmed it was upgrading bases on the Papuan coast. "That (asylum-seekers) is a tactical problem," said Commodore Abdul Malik Yusuf, adding that keeping watch for asylum-seekers was only a small part of the navy's brief.

Indonesian Human Rights Commission regional chief in Papua Albert Rumbekwan said he was concerned others would follow the 43 asylum-seekers who had sailed to Australia. "When feelings of fear are very high, that can happen," he said.

Hundreds of students remained frightened to leave the jungles on the outskirts of Papua's provincial capital Jayapura. On the run after they were caught up in a riot at Cendrawasih University last week, some of the students have been eating leaves, too frightened to come out into the open.

Such a predicament is common in Papua where independent observers believe the security forces routinely assault and oppress the people of Indonesia's remote eastern province.

Arnoldus Omba, a student at the University of Science and Technology in Jayapura, said he and seven others had been living in the wild since last week. "We eat whatever we can eat," he said. "Young leaves, cassava root, and we hunt birds too." Mr Omba said he was terrified of capture. "We're frightened we will be killed by them (the police)," he said. "We're not criminals."

Cendrawasih University criminology academic Basir Rohrohman said the students had not returned to the campus. "They're refugees, because they're terrified by the hunt of the security forces," he said.

Mr Rumbekwan said the protest last week, which left four police officers and an airforce officer dead, drew international attention to the brutality rampant in the province.

"The security forces took their revenge with assaults and torture," he said. "Now the religious and social leaders and the NGOs are warning the people not to do anything which could bring damage on everyone. Because of what happened, many people are terrified, they have fled and they are hiding in the jungle."

Australia has routinely refused to support Papuan claims for independence, although the Free Papua Movement (OPM) has reportedly in the past had some support from Australian-funded NGOs.

For decades, Australia was one of the only nations in the world to recognise Indonesia's annexation of East Timor, and Australian support for Indonesia's national integrity has been equally firm, a policy of both the Labor and Liberal parties.

Papua was integrated into Indonesia following an "Act of Free Choice" in 1969 but most Papuans condemn the referendum of 1000 "people's representatives" as a whitewash.

Papuan police spokesman Kartono Wangsa Disastra said officers were still hunting 12 suspects. He conceded another detachment of Indonesia's notorious paramilitary police had been sent to the province, but he said there was nothing for the innocent to fear.

Yet Father Max Dometau, from the Papuan Presidium Council, said Papuans had learned to fear the security forces. "The students are still being hunted and it's difficult to reassure them it's safe to return because they're still traumatised," he said.

He had heard the students who were still on the run would look for asylum in Papua New Guinea and in Australia. "It's because they don't feel safe," he said.