The Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Special Leaders Summit yesterday agreed to defer the consideration of the application for full membership by the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP).
It was reported that the delay was agreed to until membership criteria and guidelines are further developed by the Sub-Committee on Legal and Institutional Issues (SCLII), considering fundamental principles, political aspirations, and principles of international law and to be completed end of September 2016.
Leaders did not reach consensus and directed the SCLII to undertake further review on:
(i) the revised application Procedures, Criteria, and Participatory Rights and Obligations of an Observer and an Associate Member to the MSG.
(ii) the new membership guidelines for full membership to the MSG.
The membership application will now be considered at a special MSG meeting to be held in Vanuatu in September.
This means West Papuan residents will have to wait one more month to be recognised as a fully-fledged member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG).
It was highlighted Indonesia has vigorously lobbied the MSG members not to give recognition to the West Papuans, saying it is the only true representative of Melanesian peoples in five of its provinces and the ULMWP is just an NGO.
Last year the MSG upgraded Indonesia from observer to associate member status and accepted the ULMWP as observers.
By recognising the ULMWP, the MSG has led international efforts open talks between the West Papuans group and Indonesia over its two Papuan provinces.
Last month Indonesian diplomats and the ULMWP sat at the same table for the first time at MSG talks in Fiji.
Momentum for the West Papuan cause has been building with Solomon Islands and Vanuatu raising the issue in international forums, including at the United Nations.
Indonesia took over the former Dutch colony in the 1960s, which was formalised through a UN-sponsored but disputed referendum called the ‘Act of Free Choice’.
West Papuan independence groups have fought a decades-long, bloody conflict with Indonesia that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives.
Indonesia is regularly accused of human rights abuses in its Papuan provinces.
Indonesia disputes the ULMWP’s legitimacy to represent the four million people in West Papua, saying it is the true representative for 11 million people of Melanesian ancestry in five of its provinces.
A precedent for the ULMWP is the membership of the MSG of New Caledonia’s Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) independence group.
The MSG was first formed in 1986 and was formalised under an international agreement in 2007 as a forum for Melanesian and economic issues.
