by Richard Sanders, Associate Editor
A recent unexpected visit to Indonesia’s Papuan provinces by a prominent Pacific diplomat has come under fire for hindering efforts to push for a United Nations human rights mission to the region, where separatist rebels have been fighting against Indonesian control for many years.
The director-general of the Melanesian Spearhead Group, Leonard Louma, has not responded to inquiries from BenarNews regarding the short visit. This visit took place shortly after a recent clash between Indonesian security forces and Papuan insurgents, resulting in four fatalities and hundreds of civilians fleeing their homes in the Paniai regency of Central Papua province.
Indonesia seized the opportunity presented by the visit earlier in the month to present its administration of the disputed Melanesian region, commonly known as West Papua, in a positive manner. According to the state news agency Antara, Louma described Papua as being in a “stable and conducive” state.
A critical report on Indonesia by the UN Human Rights Committee released in May highlighted “consistent accounts of torture” and “extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances of Indigenous Papuan individuals.”
Hipo Wangge, an Indonesian foreign policy analyst at the Australian National University, stated that the Indonesian government’s facilitation of the visit is “another effort to diminish international calls, including those from the MSG, for the UN Human Rights Commission to inspect human rights conditions in Papua,” as well as “another attempt to address regional concerns regarding entrenched discrimination against Papuans.”
Indonesia has rejected a request from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for several years to conduct an independent fact-finding mission in Papua.
Since 2019, the Pacific Islands Forum, a regional organization consisting of 18 nations, has urged Indonesia to allow the mission to proceed. The Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), comprising Fiji, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and New Caledonia’s Kanak independence movement, has made similar appeals.