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Pacific Island countries reaffirm support for Indonesia's sovereignty in Papua

Xinhua, September 11, 2015 Adjust font size:

Indonesia has received reaffirmation of supports on Indonesia's sovereignty in Papua from countries joined in Pacific Island Forum (PIF) in recent meeting held in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, a senior Indonesian official said on Friday.

"Discussion on Papua issues resulted in reaffirmation of supports on Indonesia's sovereignty and integrity on Papua and provinces in its jurisdiction," Indonesia's Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister A.M. Fachir who attended the 46th meeting held from Sept. 7 to 11 said in a statement.

Fachir also said that in the meeting Indonesia denied accusations about the occurrence of rights violations in Papua, saying that such accusations were baseless, reflecting wrong interpretation on the facts that went on in the field.

Related to the issue, Indonesia rejected foreign intervention, including the proposal to send PIF fact finding team to West Papua province raised in the meeting.

"As a democratic country, Indonesia upholds law supremacy and human rights. Indonesia's national rights mechanism has been functioning very well," Fachir said.

Indonesia saw a religious conflict between Muslims and Christianity followers following a misunderstanding between devotees of the two religions that ended up in the arson of a mosque and buildings around the mosque in West Papua province regency of Tolikara in July this year.

Indonesian authority has arrested those responsible in the conflict, waiting for further legal proceedings.

Fachir added that in the meeting Indonesia pledged its full support to help the development and push for further economic cooperation with Pacific island countries. Indonesia is also looking forward for further cooperation with PIF countries in the upcoming UNFCCC slated later this year in Paris, France, he said.

PIF is a regional organization in Pacific region aimed at attaining communal growth and development sustainability among member countries. PIF was joined by 16 countries, with 17 dialogue partners.

Indonesia was one of the dialogue partner countries. The other ones were the United States, China, Cuba, the Philippines, Italy, Spain, India, Britain, Japan, Canada, South Korea, Malaysia, France, Thailand, Turkey and the European Union. Endi