7 Jun 2016

Clarification on West Papua report to UN sec-gen

8:41 pm on 7 June 2016

The office of the United Nations Secretary-General denies that he met with a representative of West Papua at the World Humanitarian Summit.

Following the Istanbul summit a fortnight ago, there have been regional media reports that Ban Ki Moon was given a West Papua fact-finding mission report titled 'We Will Lose Everything'.

A spokesman for Mr Ban, Stephane Dujarric has given clarification.

"Contrary to some media accounts, there was no meeting between the Secretary-General and any West Papua representative in Istanbul," he said.

"We also have no record of any documents being officially handed over to the Secretary-General."

However, the executive director of the Pacific Islands Association for Non-Governmental Organizations, Emele Duituturaga, confirmed she met unofficially with Ban Ki Moon at one of the roundtable meetings, and presented his assistant with the report.

Emele Duituturaga.

Emele Duituturaga. Photo: supplied

Ms Duituturaga said she hoped that Mr Ban would pay attention to Papua.

"The Pacific is calling for it. Not just in the Pacific. There are meetings of parliamentarians in the United Kingdom. It's now become a world issue," she said.

"It's very heartening to see Ban Ki Moon denounce violations in other parts of the world, and it's just a matter of time. He needs to pay attention to the issue of West Papua and send an independent fact-finding mission so that we can all establish what's really going on."