Likely Indonesia out, West Papua in

By Godwin Ligo

Vanuatu r, Moana Carcasses, 

holding the West Papua Freedom flag flanked 

by the West Papuan delegation (photo dailyVU)

 

If Vanuatu national leaders, and some top brass in the opposition, mean what they say of the support to the West Papuan cause, towards self-determination, Indonesia will likely be voted out, and West Papua will be voted in, as observer to the Melanesian Spearhead group at June 2013 MSG Meeting in New Caledonia.

On Wednesday last week, Vanuatu Prime Minister Moana Carcasses assured a West Papua delegation during a meeting in his office that he will support West Papua request to grant and admit West Papua as an observer status in the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Meeting at Noumea in June.

Former Deputy Prime Minister Ham Lini already pledged his support in the last government to move for Indonesia to be stripped off the MSG Status and West Papua to be granted the MSG Observer status.

The current Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Edward Nipake Natapei also already publicly made his views clear on his stand on the issue. He told Daily Post two weeks ago that he will support West Papua to obtain MSG observer status in the upcoming June MSG Meeting in Noumea New Caledonia.

The Shefa Provincial Government came out loud and clear also supporting West Papuan cause.

Even the Pacific Conference of Churches’ recent Assembly in Honiara, Solomon Islands, was very vocal on the issue and declared it to the regional political and civic leaders as well as to the world that it supports the cry of the West Papua Melanesians.

The Chiefs in Vanuatu have, on a number of occasions called on Vanuatu governments to take up the issue of West Papua in the regional and international forums to pressure Jakarta to hand West Papua Melanesians their political freedom- and to stop the killings of the Melanesians in West Papua by the Indonesian military forces, as alleged in numerous media and independent reports around the region and beyond.

Then there’s the question of which side of the fence will the other MSG members are likely to support.

On March 6, 2013, Papua New Guinea National Capital District Governor, Powes Parkop, told West Papuan, Benny Wenda, at a concert in Port Moresby before a crowd of 3,000 people that: “There is no historical, religious, or moral justification for Indonesia’s occupation of West Papua.” 

Civil Society groups and activists in Melanesian countries have come out loud and clear on the issue- for Indonesia military to stop killing West Papuans and for the MSG Leaders to dispose Indonesia from MSG Observer status and accept West Papua instead.

While Daily Post could not get comment from the MSG Headquarters in Port Vila on the issue, DP understands that the issue of removing Indonesia from the MSG observer status and handing over the status to West Papua is likely to be high on the agenda.

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