West Papua

The General Secretary, Reverend Francois Pihaatae, said a protest that took place during the forum supporting West Papua's independence was nothing new.

Mr Pihaatae said it illustrated the strong support from some. But he urged all Pacific nations to express their concern as seen in Samoa.

RNZI reports Indonesia's Ambassador to New Zealand, Samoa and Tonga, Tantowi Yahya, was at the meeting and condemned the protest and accused Pacific Islanders of being misled on a human rights situation that had largely improved.

The leaders have called for dialogue to continue in an open and constructive manner.

When asked whether the language in the communiqué around the issue of West Papua was weak, Samoa Prime Minister and Forum Chair, Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said, no.

“It’s the most powerful wording we could find. You know these issues are very sensitive, he said at a post-Forum press conference in Apia, Samoa.

Last Wednesday, a small but vocal group of the Free West Papua movement staged a peaceful protest outside the venue of the Leaders meeting in Apia.

Franzalbert Joku from the Ministry for Political, Judicial and Security in Indonesia is at the 48th Pacific Islands Leaders Forum in Samoa.

“I’m saying it’s not happening to the scale like in the 60s, 70s, 80s and even as late as the 90s.”

“On the issue of Papua independence and human rights abuses allegations, we don’t think the forum is the appropriate place to address these issues."

Protesters gathered outside the Aggie Grey’s Sheraton Hotel in Samoa yesterday to address the leaders and delegates attending the forum.

In their recent meet in Auckland, New Zealand, the ECFCB of Oceania (Australia, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, New Zealand, CEPAC- the rest of the Pacific discussed their knowledge, awareness and impacts of climate change in the region.

In a statement together, all the Bishops of the Pacific agreed that the place of the sea in the lives of the people would be a central focus of their meeting.

The organisation's Jakarta based researcher, Andreas Harsono made the call following an announcement last week that no more than five Papuan political prisoners remained behind bars in Papua and West Papua, down from 37 in 2016.

Mr Harsono said while the release of political prisoners was a positive step, more needed to be done to address serious human rights abuses committed by Indonesian security forces in the Papuan regions.

He said a UN special rapporteur on Freedom of Expression should be allowed to visit West Papua.

The ACP Council of Ministers in Brussels reportedly heard a joint statement on Papua from seven Pacific countries - Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Nauru, Palau and the Marshall Islands.

The statement condemned Indonesian human rights violations in Papua and called for a resolution supporting the right of West Papuan political self-determination.

However, Indonesia's embassy in New Zealand says the ACP agreed in April that the group would not cover the issue of Papua in future meetings.

Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Nauru, Palau and the Marshall Islands delivered a joint statement at the ACP's Council of Ministers in Brussels.

It condemned Indonesian human rights violations in Papua, including alleged crimes against humanity and called for an eventual resolution that includes support of the right of West Papuan political self-determination.

Reuters reports that the losses appear to be pushing the Indonesian government and Freeport to resolve the row.

Tabloid Jubi reported this call came after the expulsion of French journalists Franck Escudie and Basile Longchamp on visa violations last month.

RSF's Benjamin Ismail said the Indonesian president had undertaken to scrap the restrictions that obstruct the work of foreign journalists in West Papua.

But he said Jakarta's repeated refusals to issue press visas and the growing number of journalists on its blacklist, shows it falls far short of qualifying as a country that supports freedom of expression and media freedom.

The office's head Samuel Enock said Jean Pierre and Basille Longhamp were sponsored by Garuda to report on a number of stories in Indonesia, but they started their work before obtaining the necessary documents, which were still being processed

Mr Enock said as a consequence, the pair had been banned from entering Indonesia for the next six months.

The pair was deported from Timika to France via Jakarta on a Garuda flight on Friday.