Committee confident of united West Papuan bid

Transcript

The chair of Vanuatu's West Papua Unification Committee is confident next week's summit will produce a united West Papuan bid to join the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

About 200 West Papuans from the region and around the world are expected at the conference.

A formal membership application by the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation was knocked back by the MSG earlier this year, whose leaders called for a more representative bid.

The chair of Vanuatu's West Papua Unification Committee, Pastor Allan Nafuki, spoke with Leilani Momoisea ahead of the summit next week.

ALLAN NAFUKI: Monday number one [December 1st] is an important day for the West Papua people, that they raised their flag during 1960s and they mark December 1st as an important day for them. So we will be having our independence celebration for them here December 1st is a public holiday in Vanuatu. And there will be a big march from the Republic of Vanuatu from every province will march and also Port Villa we are expecting a lot of people to march to show their solidarity in support of the West Papua struggle. And we will march to the main stage in Port Villa where we will have some key speakers to speak and also we are having our prime minister Joe Natuman, he will be our key speaker from there. And then meeting of West Papua begins Tuesday.

LEILANI MOMOISEA: Have West Papuans in West Papua, have they had any problems getting out of West Papua?

AN: So far until today we have had no pick-up problems that would bring us worry. At the moment we are organising and everything's flowing through.

LM: Are there any groups who aren't pro-independence that will be attending the conference?

AN: We are asking every group, whether pro or not pro, we are expecting all of them to come so that at the end of the summit nobody will say the Vanuatu summit was not well represented so we want to get everybody an opportunity at this summit.

LM: And are you confident that a united West Papuan bid to join the MSG will stem from this conference?

AN: Yes by this summit we expect all of them will sign requesting for membership in MSG.

LM: Right you're confident that's going to happen at the end of this?

AN: Yes, I'm confident that this will be one of our main highlights in this summit.