West Papua

Tabloid Jubi reports Royke Lumowa as saying illegal fishing should continue to be a concern for both central and local governments, suggesting that inaction would allow the problem to become rampant.

He said that because the remoteness of West Papua, as well as lack of resources for police to monitor the waters, a lot of illegal fishing went unchecked.

Mr Royke said that to counter illegal fishing, local police needed the help of the Navy, the Marine Department and the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, especially in terms of equipment.

Solomon Islands Prime Minister, Manasseh Sogavare, who is the current Chair of the MSG, made the assurance when a delegation of ULMWP leaders met with him in Port Vila yesterday requesting him to favourably consider two issues for addressing by the MSG.

Mr Sogavare, who is the prime minister of Solomon Islands, has also declared his country's support for the United Liberation Movement for West Papua's bid to be a full member of the MSG.

Mr Sogavare has just been in Port Vila where he met with his Vanuatu counterpart Charlot Salwai whose proposal to give the Liberation Movement full membership at the MSG is to be discussed at an upcoming MSG leaders summit in Papua New Guinea.

RNZI reports the mission in February by the Catholic Justice and Peace Commission in Brisbane has produced a report called 'We will Lose Everything'

Peter Arndt, who led the fact finding team, says the indigenous people they met made it clear the human rights situation was not improving and it remains a difficult environment.

The group, the International Parliamentarians for West Papua, were meeting at the Houses of Parliament to discuss the future of the region which is administered by Indonesia.

According to the group Free West Papua, the British opposition leader, Jeremy Corbyn, reiterated his support for the struggle for freedom in the region and said he would like this to be written into Labour Party policy.

RNZI reports demonstrations have been planned for today in most of the region's urban centres as West Papuans mark by protest the anniversary of transferal of administration in the former Dutch New Guinea to Indonesia in 1963.

Dozens of West Papuans were arrested in Papuan cities such as Jayapura and Merauke for organising demonstrations which were expected to take place today.

The Catholic report says Muslims are being radicalised in the once predominantly Christian Papuan provinces, and very active militias are burning down Papuan houses.

According to RNZI, the report was compiled by the Brisbane Catholic Justice and Peace Commission's Shadow Human Rights Fact Finding Mission to West Papua, following a visit last month.

Sogavare was in Suva Wednesday and held talks with Bainimarama as well as Foreign Minister Ratu Inoke Kubuabola.

He says the situation in West Papua remains an issue for Melanesian countries.

“It’s a transnational issue and is not something that you can shy away from. All right thinking people on planet earth should be able to express concern when a race is actively prosecuted.”

FBC reports the Fijian government has confirmed it recognises Indonesia’s sovereignty over West Papua.

The Movement, which was last year granted observer status at the Melanesian Spearhead Group, this week opened an office in the Highlands of Papua province, a building shaped as a circular traditional Melanesian house.

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.