West Papua

The two-week conference brought positive response to issues affecting PNG and its neighbours.

The 22 bishops of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, after a recent visit to Jayapura, have sworn to make a stand on the independence of the refugees of West Papua in Indonesia.

They were met by other West Papuan bishops and discussed issues of cooperation between each diocese in PNG as well Solomon Islands and West Papua. They will be writing a statement to address the issue of refugees and West Papua’s call for independence.

Indonesia's Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said he would propose assigning a Foreign Ministry official to engage with Pacific neighbours and advance Indonesia's commitment to resolving complicated issues surrounding Papua.

The Catholic report says Muslims are being radicalised in the once predominantly Christian Papuan provinces, and very active militias are burning down Papuan houses.

The report was compiled by the Brisbane Catholic Justice and Peace Commission's Shadow Human Rights Fact Finding Mission to West Papua, following a visit last month.

It has not yet been publicly released, nor comment sought from Indonesian authorities.

At a meeting in New Caledonia the FLNKS spokesman, Victor Tutugoro, said the issue of West Papua must be pursued with vigour by the MSG.

The chair of the MSG, Solomons' prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, said the issue of West Papua is dear to the hearts of Solomon Islanders.

He says the significance of this is manifested in the Solomons' appointment of a special envoy on West Papua last year.

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West Papua has seen a low-level separatist war since Jakarta took over the former Dutch colony in the 1960s.

Solomon Islands prime minister Manasseh Sogavare made the proposal in Honiara this week to a ULMWP delegation led by their secretary general Octo Mote.

The memberships of both Indonesia and the ULMWP were the highlight of last year's MSG summit in Solomon Islands with the former securing associate membership and the latter observer status in the sub-regional Melanesian body.

Deputy Chief Migration Officer Esther Gaegaming says upon instructions from the Government a team from Migration visited the East Arwin camp in Western Province and registered more than 2,700 West Papuans.

She says most West Papuans are free from the work permit requirements and will not be paying the K10,000 fee for a citizenship application.

Gaegaming says a program to register all West Papuan refugees will be rolled out next year.

The Migration team will visit provinces like West Sepik, Madang and places where refugees settled over time.

The leasders brought up the issue at the recent 70^th United Nations General Assembly in New York.

ULMWP spokesperson, Benny Wenda, expressed his deepest gratitude to the Pacific leaders and their people, saying, “on behalf of the people of West Papua, we the United Liberation Movement for West Papua would like to convey all our deepest and most sincere gratitude to our Pacific leaders for being the sole moral voices on West Papua at the United Nations.”

Sogavare made the call in New York Thursday in his address at the 70th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.

“All states have a legal duty and moral responsibility to uphold, respect and promote human rights and where necessary take preventive, protective and punitive measures against human rights abuses or violations in accordance with the UN Charter and applicable international laws,” Sogavare said.

Sogavare's statement is the second statement from the Pacific that has raised concerns of human rights violations in West Papua, with emphasis for the UN to intervene.

Tongan Prime Minister this week also highlighted humanrights abuses facing people of West Papua.

The Solomon Islands Prime Minister informed  UNGA on the developments at the MSG and the Pacific Islands Forum, including the plea to Indonesia to accept unrestricted access to a possible mission of a fact finding mission to West Papua.