Transcript
A Ministry official said that reports about Indonesia's official reaction to some of the expressions of political voice in Papua were "disturbing".
Stephen Harris, the Divisional Director of South and South East Asia Division, said New Zealand had in the past registered its concern about human rights abuses at the ministerial level.
"Since June there has been an upwelling of public unrest that I mentioned with the armed insurrection in a couple of villages in Papua. At the same time there's been redoubling, I think, by the Inodnesian president Joko Widodo to try and invest more of his personal political capital in to progress there."
The government MP Louisa Wall asked about a recent major West Papuan petition to the UN seeking the territory's re-inscription with the Decolonisation Committee, or C24.
West Papua had been on the list in the early 1960s before being removed when Indonesia controversially took control of the territory.
Ms Wall said West Papua was a "growing and emerging issue in the Pacific"
"How interested are we in the Pacific Island interest in the emancipation of Papua? Because it's not going to go away. I can see resolutions in the Pacific islands Forum soon that want us as a block of sixteen countries to be doing something possibly putting an application so they can be added to this non-self governing territory list."
Stephen Harris said that for West Papua to be added to the list again there first needed to be a resolution in the UN general assembly.
"The problem at the moment is there's actually no pathway back for it to go to the C24 if it's blocked by the C24 - Indonesia (which is a member of the C24) would need to agree. I think in terms of the Pacific sentiment, that's quite varied. There is not a block of sixteen Pacific Island countries who think the same on this."
Michael Appleton from the Ministry's Pacific Regional Division said the Pacific Forum's focus in dealing with the Papua issue was on constructive engagement with Jakarta.
"And I think there's also a focus amongst the full membership on supporting the economic and social development in Papua. Our sense is definitely that the Forum as a group is interested in the issue of Papua, but that the way that it is going to engage on the issue will focus on those things that its membership can agree on."
Stephen Harris said the most significant recent development was a move by Indonesia's president to involve Papuans more in the political decision making in their region.
However, this has been described by many Papuans as irrelevant because Jakarta refuses to negotiate the core issue, related to their grievance over how their territory was incorporated into Indonesia in the 1960s.
