In an interview with the Herald, Mr Mendez also said the UN was prepared to step in and mediate a solution to the long-running tensions in the province.

"It's very worrying and there's evidence about violence that's continued since 1963. It's important that we look closely at the conflict now and make sure it's not getting out of hand," he said.

"We certainly have it under our inquiry but it's hard to assess the situation on the ground So it's hard to know what is going on in West Papua."

Asked if he was prepared to act as a mediator between the Government and separatists, Mr Mendez said "absolutely", although that would require an invitation from both parties.

Indonesia has been tightly restricting human rights experts from the UN, academia and non-government organisations from visiting Papua for years, a ban on unfettered access that has extended to foreign media for at least the past 18 months.

Chris Ballard, an expert on Papua from the Australian National University, said he had been banned from entering the province since 2001.

In the absence of independent scrutiny, he said the assurances from Indonesian leaders had to be treated with caution.

"When the [Indonesian] foreign minister makes a statement that there aren't human rights abuses in Papua, there's absolutely no way of telling if it's the truth," he said.

Senior Indonesian ministers have vehemently denied that indigenous Papuans are being repressed.

Agence France-Presse reports that police fired water cannon yesterday to disperse protesters rallying outside the Jakarta offices of Freeport Indonesia to demand the closure of its mine in Papua.

About 100 Papuan protesters threw rocks and grabbed shields from police in the second day of protests. They demanded the mine's closure and the withdrawal of non-Papuan police and military from the province.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald