Indonesia lobbies MSG members as membership bid looms

Transcript

The West Papuan representative body applying for membership in the Melanesian Spearhead Group says it always expected Indonesia's government to increase efforts to counter the application.

Jakarta has been busy forging closer ties with independent Melanesian governments and Indonesia's Foreign Minister has just visited Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Fiji .

Retno Marsudi's visits came as MSG countries consider a membership bid by the United Liberation Movement for West Papua.

Johnny Blades has more.

The Indonesian Foreign Minister's visit to PNG caused a minor stir when it was revealed that local journalists were barred from asking her questions about West Papua. But comments by PNG's Prime Minister Peter O'Neill, urging Indonesia to support the West Papuan application to join the MSG, ensured the topic was not off the discussion agenda. PNG's Foreign Minister Rimbink Pato has been at pains to point out that PNG respects Indonesia's sovereign hold of Papua region. But he says any bid by West Papuans to join the MSG should be endorsed by Indonesia.

RIMBINK PATO: So it's not for us to force Indonesia on how to run their affairs. If there is an application, we want to ensure that it is representative of the Melanesian that they claim to represent. So we don't want a group that is factionalised fully supported by one group of Melanesians living in the US or somewhere in Europe or Australia and then cause more problems than fix.

In Solomon Islands, the Foreign Minister Milner Tozaka says he raised issues about West Papua with Retno Marsudi, relating to concerns expressed by MSG mandated positions.

MILNER TOZAKA: There was a collective agreement for us to raise the West Papuan isseu bilaterally. But collectively, we have a collective stand on it that we support the self-determination of West Papua but have to look at in the light of the referendum that was signed in 1969.

Retno Marsudi's talks in Fiji with her counterpart Ratu Inoke Kubuabola resulted in a raft of outcomes, including closer co-operation, military training and Indonesia committing 20 million US dollars to a MSG capacity building programme. The secretary-general of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua says Jakarta's lobbying should not dilute the case for West Papuan membership in the MSG. Octo Mote says Indonesia's approach is about buying out the leaders of independent Melanesian countries

OCTO MOTE: Being a Melanesian leader myself of West Papua, it's really embarrassing that the Indonesian way of doing the lobbying is bribing leaders that West Papua is facing. So I trust the Melanesian leaders. They know how to make a distinction between bilateral relations and into the human rights situation West Papua is facing.  

Octo Mote says he is confident that MSG leaders will listen to the growing groundswell of support for West Papuan membership in the MSG within their countries and the region. MSG leaders are expected to decide on the application at their annual summit in Honiara in the middle of the year.