PIF'S MSG GRANTS WEST PAPUAN GROUP 'OBSERVER' STATUS
Small steps are the modus operandi of international diplomacy. This was evident again in June when the Pacific Island Forum's "Melanesian Spearhead Group" of South-West Pacific nations (Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea) along with party member, FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist Nationalist Liberation Front) representing Melanesians of (French) New Caledonia, took the unprecedented step of bringing the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) into the fold by granting it 'Observer' status.
ULMWP represents the ambitions of West Papuans living outside of the provinces claimed by Indonesia on the island of New Guinea. West Papuans living in these same provinces are represented at the MSG by Indonesia which was elevated at the June meeting to 'associate member' status.
The ULMWP delegation and their international supporters were generally pleased to have received the very first small step toward full international recognition - an outcome that is the result of years of lobbying by an array of activists both within and without West Papua and against the wishes of Jakarta.
The members of MSG therefore deserve to be congratulated for finally finding the will to make up their own minds on the West Papuan issue against the obvious thrust of big-power regional politics seeking to overtake their agenda.
The matter will have to be raised further at the full Pacific Island Forum at some point and while acceptance of ULMWP in that sphere remains to be seen, it is certain the issue cannot be boxed in or excluded forever. As Honiara in June showed, there is a gathering force of international players seeking to right the historical UN-supervised wrong, that saw West Papua given from the Dutch colonisers to Indonesia in the context of American Cold War consderations.
OUTLAWED in West Papua, the MORNING STAR national flag of the ULMWP will nevertheless fly unfurled and free alongside the other national flags of MSG
Honourable EDISON WAROMI (left), Prime Minister-in-exile of the Federal Reublic of West Papua, meets Solomon Island PM, MANASSEH SOGOVARE, at MSG
MSG leaders - LEFT TO RIGHT: Honourable JOHNSON NAVITI, Director General, Office of the Prime Minister, Vanuatu (standing in for Prime Minister Kilman); Honourable
BEN MICAH, PNG Minister for Public Enterprises and State Investment (standing in for Prime Minister O’Neill); Honourable FRANK BAINIMARAMA, Prime Minister, Fiji; VICTOR TUTUGORO (FLNKS, Kanaky, New Caledonia), Outgoing MSG Chair;
Honourable MANASSEH SOGAVARE, Prime Minister, Solomon Islands
Traditional Solomon Islands welcome to MSG
Federal Republic of West Papua Foreign Minister, JACOB RUMBIAK, leads in prayer at the start of the street march through Honiara at MSG
PRAYERS for West Papua by WP Women's Group in St Paul's Cathedral Melbourne prior to MSG
PHOTO CREDITS: Office of Prime Minister of Federal Republic of West Papua; Dean Golja; Savannah Thatcher - used by permission, Jacob Rumbiak, Foreign Minister, Federal Republic of West Papua, Docklands, Australia.
