Vanuatu boycotts MSG Indonesia visit

14 January, 2014

Dan McGarry

misc

Vanuatu boycotts MSG Indonesia visit

Citing the failure by Indonesian authorities to address the question of whether the West Papua National Coalition for Liberation (WPNCL) was a legitimate representative organisation, Vanuatu has stated that it will not participate in a visit by the Melanesia Spearhead Group to Indonesia. Fiji, however, appears to have backed away from its support of the WPNCL. Following the announcement of Indonesian funding for a planned MSG police academy to be located in Suva, Fiji’s foreign ministry issued a statement announcing the visit, and further recognising that ‘West Papua is an integral part of Indonesia.’ The announcement erroneously stated that Vanuatu would be participating.

As the visit began, word circulated that efforts by civil society members to meet the delegation were thwarted by security forces. Student activists in Jayapura resorted to blocking the only road to the airport, according to partisan news sources, resulting in the officials being flown out by helicopter. Reports that other independence activists were beaten as they attempted to reach the delegation could not be independently confirmed.

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Dan McGarry is chief technologist at the Pacific Insititute of Public Policy. He has worked in the Pacific for over a decade now, assisting in numerous capacities in the development of ICTs in Vanuatu and the Pacific. He has extensive experience in technology policy formulation and implementation as well as in traditional and new media. He still writes software.

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