Transcript
Indonesia's Defence Minister said he has pressed Canberra to rebuke Pacific states, in particular Solomon Islands, for raising Papua in global forums. He's also warned them not to invite Papuans to join the Melanesian Spearhead Group. The Solomons' Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has been active in pushing for greater regional representation for Papuans. However his government's envoy on West Papua, Rex Horoi, says the Solomons won't respond to what is effectively a media statement.
Due to the fact that we have not received any formal communication (on the matter) either from Jakarta or from Canberra, why should we respond at this stage? Therefore we will not respond until we receive such communication through diplomatic channels.
But he says Pacific countries raise Papua in global fora because West Papuans lives matter.
We speak collectively on abuse and human rights violations in West Papua because we have received reliable sources of information and therefore that is the collective concern of the civil society, public and governments of the region.
Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has confirmed having discussed West Papua last week with the Indonesian Defence Minister, but wouldn't be pressed on whether Canberra will pass the warning on. Dr Stewart Firth from the Australian National University's State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Program says Jakarta has misinterpreted Australia's relationship with Pacific countries. He says these are sovereign states who value their sovereignty - and that just because Australia may give them aid, it doesn't mean it can determine their foreign policy.
What's worrying the Indonesians is the way in which this whole question of membership in the MSG has assumed a kind of symbolic political value to West Papuan independence activists. And earlier this year we saw major demonstrations in a number of towns in West Papua, for which people were arrested and so on, because they were demonstrating in favour of West Papuan membership in the MSG.
Dr Firth says for leaders of numerous Pacific island states, West Papua is the one foreign policy issue which has a domestic constituency, as evidenced by the rise of civil society movements in support of Papuan rights across the region.
It's unusual for there to be any organisations formed in the Pacific on a foreign policy issue. You have to go right back to the nuclear issue, when the French were testing, to find something similar. So these leaders, including even (Peter) O'Neill in PNG, have to balance that public opionion against foreign policy considerations.
Meanwhile, the United Liberation Movement for West Papua has described the Indonesian minister's statements as an odd and backwards form of diplomacy.
