The organisation calling itself the Federal Republic of West Papua is today opening an office in Melbourne.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs of the organisation, Jacob Rumbiak, says the new office in Melbourne's Docklands business district will help build relations between West Papua, Indonesia and Australia.
He says these relations were hijacked by the UN's New York Agreement in 1962, which provided for the transferral of the former Dutch New Guinea to Indonesia.
The Prime Minister and President of the so-called Republic, Edison Waromi and Forkorus Yaboisembut, are currently incarcerated in an Indonesia jail in Papua province for declaring West Papuan independence at a rally in Jayapura almost three years ago.
The new office is funded by Australians who have assembled themselves into a "West Papua Rent Collective".
