During a meeting in Jakarta, Indonesia this week between PNG Prime Minister and Indonesian President, Prime Minister Marape took the opportunity to clarify PNG’s stand on West Papua issue.
Prime Minister Marape issued a statement to clarify the inaccuracies.
“An earlier statement released without consent wrongfully said that at the recently-concluded MSG Leaders’ Summit in Port Vila, Vanuatu, I informed leaders of PNG’s abstaining from supporting the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) bid for full membership, plus a notation that human rights issues in West Papua are of no concern to PNG. I wish to clarify these misconstrued assertions.”
Prime Minister Marape corrects that, “Papua New Guinea never abstained from West Papua matters at the MSG meeting, but rather, offered solutions that affirmed Indonesian sovereignty over her territories and at the same time supported the collective MSG position to back the Pacific Islands Forum Resolution of 2019 on United Nations to assess if there are human right abuses in West Papua and Papua provinces of Indonesia.”
“In the meeting with President Widodo, we stressed our respect for Indonesian sovereignty and their territorial rights, but on matters of human rights, I pointed out the collective Melanesian and Pacific resolutions for the United Nations to be allowed to ascertain these allegations. I also relayed the message that four leaders of Melanesian countries resolved to visit him at his convenience to discuss this matter on Human rights”.
“President Widodo responded that the MSG leaders are welcome to meet him and invited them to an October meeting subject on the availability of all leaders. He assured me that all is okay in the two Papuan provinces and invited other PNG leaders to visit these provinces.”
Prime Minister Marape indicated that a senior leadership team, led by Deputy Prime Minister John Rosso, will visit West Papua and look into these matters and see firsthand, what is happening in order to talk with facts on matters relating to human rights.
