Decision on West Papuan MSG membership bid approaches

Transcript

The prospect of West Papuan membership in the Melanesian Spearhead Group appears close, ahead of the grouping's annual leaders summit next month.

The West Papua National Coalition for Liberation recently formally applied for full MSG membership and a formal response is expected at the New Caledonia summit.

The signs so far look good for the coalition but one or two uncertainties remain, including how Indonesia will react to more efforts to internationalise issues concerning the indigenous people of its eastern provinces. Johnny Blades has more:

The West Papua National Coalition for Liberation says there is only one member of the MSG left to lobby over its membership bid. The coalition's vice-chairman, Dr John Ondawame, says from their intensive lobbying in recent months, they've received commitments of support from Vanuatu, Fiji, Solomon Islands and the Kanak leadership of New Caledonia.

ONDAWAME: It indicates clearly that the majority of the Melanesian countries support the West Papuan independence aspiration. Only Papua New Guinea (is yet to confirm its support), and at the end of this month a delegation of the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation will visit PNG and we will raise the same concern with the government of Papua New Guinea.

One of the political leaders involved in the establishment of the MSG 25 years ago says the group was created to ensure equal treatment for all the indigenous people of Melanesia.

Former Solomon Islands prime minister, Ezekiel Alebua, says the MSG founders believed that this could only come about through everyone having independence.

ALEBUA: Each country being able to make their own political decisions about their own future and about how we can interact socially, economically and culturally with one another - that's what we wanted to see more of. I have full confidence that West Papua will be admitted into MSG in June.

However Indonesia, which itself was granted observer status at the MSG two years ago, has displayed extreme sensitivity over international efforts to support West Papuan self-determination.

Muridan Widjojo from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences says the recent outcry by Jakarta over the opening of a West Papuan office in the British city of Oxford may provide a clue for how Indonesia feels about West Papuan membership at the MSG.

WIDJOJO: And the old policy is to obstruct the effort to put the Papua issue into an international forum, at least at the United Nations. So I think the government of Indonesia, so far, tried to keep lobbying the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

John Ondawame says he's been reassured by the MSG Director-General, Peter Forau, that the West Papuans meet the criteria for membership.

ONDAWAME: What he said to me (was) West Papua already fills the criteria. To be Melanesian, they already fill the criteria. It's important all leaders are concerned about the substantial issue of West Papua, that is West Papua must be free from any colonisation, particularly Indonesian colonisation.

Dr Ondawame says that when West Papuans gain MSG membership, they'll look to remove Indonesia from the grouping.