JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian authorities on Thursday denied claims by separatist rebels in the Papua region that at least 17 gold miners slain by insurgents were members of security forces.

The rebels said they attacked a gold panning camp in the Yahukimo district of Highland Papua province, killing 17 people, including five on Wednesday. Spokesman Sebby Sambon of the rebel West Papua Liberation Army claimed the victims were members of Indonesia’s army disguised as gold miners.

He said his group had warned all workers to leave Indonesian government projects as well as traditional gold mining areas, or they would be considered part of the Indonesian security forces.

“The West Papua Liberation Army is responsible for the attacks at Yahukimo’s gold panning camp,” Sambom said. “Because they were part of Indonesian intelligence and soldiers.”

Indonesia’s Defense Ministry on Thursday said that no members of the Indonesian National Armed Forces, known as TNI, are involved in illegal gold mining activities in Papua.

“The presence of TNI in Papua is solely for carrying out constitutional duties — ensuring national security and protecting all Indonesian citizens, including those in the Papua region,” it said in a statement.

Frega Wenas, the defense ministry’s spokesperson, told reporters that police had recovered the bodies of 11 miners and were searching for other possible victims.

“They targeted the civilians who are not guilty and these are actually the mining workers,” Wenas said. “They try to use disinformation narrative to frame that Indonesian government in an incorrect way.”

Indonesia’s government, which for decades has had a policy of sending Javanese and other Indonesians to settle in Papua, is trying to spur economic development to dampen the separatist movement.

Papua is a former Dutch colony in the western part of New Guinea that is ethnically and culturally distinct from much of Indonesia. Papua was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969, after a U.N.-sponsored ballot that was widely seen as a sham. Since then, a low-level insurgency has simmered in the region, which was divided into five provinces in 2022.