American Samoa's US Congressman, Faleomavaega Eni Hunkin, has dismissed suggestions the House of Representatives is ignoring key issues regarding Indonesia's Papua.
This follows the move by the Congress to drop provisions on Papua that had been included in a Foreign Relations Bill.
The bill initially contained a section calling on the State Department to report on the current political status of Papua, looking at the UN-sanctioned 1969 Act of Free Choice, under which Papua was incorporated into Indonesia.
The Department was also called on to examine Special Autonomy and human rights abuses in Papua.
Faleomavaega says the House Foreign Affairs Committee decided to scrap the provisions to avoid disrupting the upcoming Indonesian Presidential election.
