Move to oust Indonesia from MSG

WEST PAPUA – Vanuatu will seek Indonesia’s removal from the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG).

This is despite the tactical rescheduling of the meeting for a second time.

Vanuatu’s Prime Minister Charlot Salwai is expected to lead the bid to remove Indonesia with the support of his Solomon Islands counterpart, Mannasseh Sogavare.

The revelation comes after Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill said his government was concerned about human rights abuses in West Papua.

O’Neill said he had expressed PNG’s concerns directly to Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo.

O’Neill made the comment on FM100’s radio talk back show while responding to questions from the public about West Papua.

“We are equally concerned about what is happening in West Papua,” he said.

“We have expressed that directly to the highest authority including the president this year particularly the human rights issue and for autonomy.”

O’Neill said he had written, as chair of the Pacific Islands Forum to President Widodo asking for a regional fact-finding team of leaders to visit West Papua to talk directly with the people themselves.

“The responsfrom Indonesia is they welcome such a dialogue and appreciative of our desire for West Papua to have some more autonomy, whether that will be self-determination or not is something that can be worked on towards,” he said.

- Islands Business