PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill gives assurance on West Papua future

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill assured the Pacific Island TROIKA and civil society organisation officials yesterday that his Government is positively engaging with the Indonesian Government on West Papua.

He gave assurance that Papua New Guinea will push the West Papua Agenda, but stated clearly that it will be done on a united Pacific and not in isolation. TROIKA leaders and civil society appealed to the leaders of PNG, Marshall and Palau to garner political support for this agenda yesterday when they met in Port Moresby.

Prime Minister Hon. Peter O’Neill said he wanted to take a diplomatic approach to the issue of the future of West Papua and singled out that the Pacific leaders cannot talk about West Papua in isolation, but with Indonesia on the table.

CSO and TROIKA said yesterday that West Papua is a very real human tragedy that has been unfolding in the Pacific for the last 54 years. Since Indonesia’s forced occupation of the western half of New Guinea, West Papua has suffered brutal oppression and extreme injustice.

Current estimates indicate more than 500,000 West Papuan have died under colonial rule. Despite assurances of an improving human rights situation by the Indonesian Government, current affairs indicate otherwise.

Pacific Civil Society also believes that finding just resolution must necessarily be pursued through both the human rights and decolonisation avenues and utilising all appropriate mechanisms and initiatives at the national and international levels. "Only then can meaningful resolution be realised. In this, Pacific Civil Society commits to support Forum Leaders should they decide to stand in solidarity with the West Papuan people and find just resolution," they said.