Agencies
Published: April 23, 2009

Jakarta: Officials say Indonesia's government has ordered the International Committee of the Red Cross to shut its office in the restricted Papua province.

ICRC Indonesia delegation head Vincent Nicod said Thursday four staff members were pulled from the regional capital, Jayapura, in March.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said they visited suspected separatist prisoners and rented office space without permission and therefore had to leave.

A low-level insurgency against the government has been waged in Papua since Indonesia took it over from the Dutch in 1963. Around 100,000 Papuans died in anti-insurgency operations.

Several people have been killed in a series of suspected rebel attacks in recent months in the worst violence there in years.

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