22 Mar 2016

Rex Horoi to be appointed Solomons' West Papua envoy

12:04 pm on 22 March 2016

Former Solomon Islands diplomat Rex Horoi is expected to be appointed his country's special envoy on West Papua at the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

The headquarters for the Melanesian Spearhead Group Secretarian (MSG) in Port Vila, Vanuatu

The headquarters for the Melanesian Spearhead Group Secretarian (MSG) in Port Vila, Vanuatu Photo: RNZI / Jamie Tahana

Solomons Prime Minister, Manasseh Sogovare, has intimated that Mr Horoi - the outgoing Director of the Foundation for the Peoples of the South Pacific - will take up the post shortly.

Mr Horoi will be responsible for ensuring MSG support for West Papua's inclusion in the United Nations Decolonisation list .

Under a Solomon Islands plan designed last year, the country was to have appointed a special envoy to lobby Pacific island governments to support West Papua's inclusion on the list.

The Solomon Islands was also expected to appoint Fe'iloakitau Tevi - former General Secretary of the Pacific Conference of Churches - as adviser to the special representative.

Most MSG countries support decolonisation of West Papua which was annexed by Indonesia in 1961 after the UN, Indonesia and the United States manipulated a referendum in the former Dutch territory.

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