JAKARTA (AFP) -- Indonesian authorities have formally banned any attempts by separatists in Papua province to mark the December 1 anniversary of an independence proclamation, police said Monday.

"The governor, the heads of the provincial police and military and the provincial attorney-general have signed a document banning the commemoration of December 1, including the flying of the Bintang Kejora (separatist flag)," said Jabir, a provincial police spokesman.

The military chief overseeing the province has ordered his troops on alert before the anniversary.

"Prior to Papua Independence Day, rebel leaders will issue circulars ordering their troops to attack police and military posts, or even public venues. So TNI (armed forces) personnel must remain vigilant," Major General Nurdin Zainal said Friday.

Pro-independence activists on previous anniversaries have raised separatist flags in Indonesia's resource-rich easternmost province.

In addition to peaceful protests the Free Papua Movement has waged a sporadic low-level revolt since 1963.

On December 1, 1962, several pro-independence activists proclaimed the state of West Papua. But Indonesia, which took control of the mountainous jungle-clad territory from Dutch colonizers in 1963, did not recognize the proclamation.

Last Wednesday soldiers killed 10 people whom they described as separatist rebels in a pre-dawn raid. That raid followed a November 2 attack, blamed on separatist rebels, in which four construction workers were killed.