West Papua

Minister for Foreign Affairs and Immigration, Rimbink Pato said Regional Resettlement Arrangement (RRA) refugees have a different level of need because they have arrived more recently and come from a non-Melanesian background.  

He said the Citizenship Advisory Committee will be meeting soon to deliberate on more than 1,000 West Papuan refugees who have been registered in East Awin, Kiunga, and Port Moresby.

Meanwhile, Pato said that in 1986 Papua New Guinea acceded to the 1951 Convention of the Status of Refugees and its related 1967 Protocol.

West Papua has seen a low-level separatist war since Jakarta took over the former Dutch colony in the 1960s.

Solomon Islands prime minister Manasseh Sogavare made the proposal in Honiara this week to a ULMWP delegation led by their secretary general Octo Mote.

Filep Karma was freed from a prison on the outskirts of Jayapura, the capital of Indonesia's Papua province.

Karma, the most prominent of Papua's political prisoners and convicted of raising a pro-independence flag, walked free from jail on Thursday to an emotional welcome by hundreds of cheering supporters.

The leasders brought up the issue at the recent 70^th United Nations General Assembly in New York.

ULMWP spokesperson, Benny Wenda, expressed his deepest gratitude to the Pacific leaders and their people, saying, “on behalf of the people of West Papua, we the United Liberation Movement for West Papua would like to convey all our deepest and most sincere gratitude to our Pacific leaders for being the sole moral voices on West Papua at the United Nations.”

Sogavare made the call in New York Thursday in his address at the 70th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.

“All states have a legal duty and moral responsibility to uphold, respect and promote human rights and where necessary take preventive, protective and punitive measures against human rights abuses or violations in accordance with the UN Charter and applicable international laws,” Sogavare said.

Sogavare's statement is the second statement from the Pacific that has raised concerns of human rights violations in West Papua, with emphasis for the UN to intervene.

Tongan Prime Minister this week also highlighted humanrights abuses facing people of West Papua.

The Solomon Islands Prime Minister informed  UNGA on the developments at the MSG and the Pacific Islands Forum, including the plea to Indonesia to accept unrestricted access to a possible mission of a fact finding mission to West Papua.

For decades the Indonesian twin provinces of Papua and West Papua have been a no-go zone amid claims of genocide and extreme violence. 

Native Affairs sent a team to the region - the first such NZ crew granted access to the troubled area of Melanesia in a half century.

Reporter Adrian Stevanon has filed an in-depth report on Papua New Guinea's neighbour.

Pacific Media Centre postgraduate researcher on West Papuan affairs Karen Abplanalp, a photojournalist, was also part of the crew.

Murray McCully's comments come after the Forum Chair and Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O'Neill said Jakarta had been accommodating recently.

Mr McCully has met with the Indonesian vice-minister for foreign affairs and a fact-finding mission into human rights was brought up.

"Well I did raise that with the vice-minister that we would certainly hope that if the idea was put forward that they would respond to it positively, but I have to say that I didn't get a very reassuring response to that."

This is the will of all the Pacific leaders and their people including Australia and New Zealand and PNG as chair is mandated to consult with Indonesia.

The 46th meeting of Pacific Island Forum leaders meeting ended with an agreement to disagree on the contentious issue of climate change and a change in approach to fisheries management.

Climate change in particular dominated the week's discussions between the 16 member countries gathered in Papua New Guinea's capital Port Moresby.

Early on in the summit, conflicting views emerged as small island states like Kiribati and Palau reiterated their calls for greater action from the more developed nations like New Zealand and Australia on climate change.