The Jakarta Post | Readers Forum | Sat, July 27 2013, 1:03 PM
Although it was disappointing that the issue of membership for West Papua at the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Summit in Noumea was deferred, a number of decisions by the leaders of the MSG in relation to West Papua are to be welcomed and should be considered a success for the West Papuan people.
In the official MSG Communiqué it stated that the leaders endorsed that the MSG fully supported the inalienable rights of the people of West Papua toward self-determination, as provided for under the preamble of the MSG constitution.
They also endorsed that the concerns of the MSG regarding human rights violations and other forms of atrocities relating to the West Papuan people be raised with the Indonesian government bilaterally and as a group.
There was also a lot of media coverage in the region (before and during) the MSG Summit in relation to the issue of West Papua and hopefully this interest by the media in West Papua will continue. It is also encouraging that the MSG will go on a fact-finding mission to West Papua. The media can play a role in this by hopefully being allowed by the authorities to accompany the fact-finding mission as a way of showing the openness of the process. However, this does not seem likely.
Joe Collins
Sydney