Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and Fiji’s coalition government are “detached from the values that Fijians hold dear”, says the NGO Coalition on Human Rights in Fiji (NGOCHR).

The rights coalition has expressed deep concern over Rabuka’s ongoing engagements with Indonesia.

“History will judge how we respond as Fijians to this moment. We must not stay silent when Pacific people are being occupied and killed,” said NGOCHR chair Shamima Ali.

• READ MORE: Indonesia’s Pacific manoeuvres – money, military and silencing West Papua
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She said Rabuka was extended a grant of $12 million by Indonesia recently and received proposals for joint military training.

“Is Fiji’s continuing silence on West Papua yet another example of being muzzled by purse strings?”

“As members of the Melanesian and Pacific family, bound by shared ancestry and identity, the acceptance of financial and any other benefit from Indonesia—while remaining silent on the plight of West Papua—is a betrayal of our family member and of regional solidarity.”

“True leadership must be rooted in solidarity, justice, and accountability,” Ali said.

“It is imperative that Pacific leaders not only advocate for peace and cooperation in the region but also continue to hold Indonesia to account on ongoing human rights violations in West Papua.”

Republished from The Fiji Times with permission.

The controversial multimilion dollar funding that Indonesia is providing to Vanuatu comes in response to a request made by the Vanuatu government, says the Indonesian Ambassador of Indonesia to Vanuatu and Australia.

According to Ambassador Siswo Pramono, the Vanuatu government requested the Indonesian government to send humanitarian aid and renovate the VIP Lounge at Bauerfield Airport following the devastation caused by cyclones Judy and Kevin in March this year.

“This is why we offer help to Vanuatu, because of the letter the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Vanuatu sent to us,’’ he said.

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“We are not going to send aid if there is no letter of request.’’

Pramono was responding to questions from the media concerning Vanuatu civil society accusations that their country should not receive aid from Indonesia in the form of development and relief supplies.

These claims were made on social media platforms. There are public concerns from critics in Vanuatu that the people in West Papua are still suffering and it is “not acceptable” to accept funds from Indonesia.

Pramono said Indonesia was going to spend 110 million vatu (NZ$1.6 million) to repair the airport as requested by the Vanuatu government.

“It’s not natural, we are requested to do so,’’ he said.

‘Nothing to do with West Papua’
“[It has] nothing to do with the West Papua movement because we also give our aid to Africans and Europeans and many other developing countries. West Papua is a domestic issue in Indonesia, we are going to solve it at the national level.’’

He said that during the groundbreaking ceremony for the renovation of the VIP lounge, Foreign Affairs Minister Matai Seremiah also explained to the public that this symbolised friendship between Indonesia and Vanuatu.

The architecture and design of the airport would reflect both the Melanesian culture of Vanuatu and that of Indonesia.

“The design has been approved by the Vanuatu government so step by step the Indonesian government is working with the government of Vanuatu,” he said.

Abdul Kadir Jailani, Indonesia’s Director-General for Asia Pacific and African Affairs, also revealed that the priority of foreign policy of Indonesia was to elevate engagement with Pacific countries through cooperation with the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG).

He reaffirmed that as part of their commitment to supporting the MSG, they were going to identify certain initiatives that would be carried out bilaterally.

“Our relationship with the MSG and bilateralism go hand in hand; delivery is always made in a bilateral framework, and Indonesia also agrees to help MSG build its capacity by contributing annually and providing cars among other things,’’ he said.

Indonesia ‘a Melanesian country’
“Indonesia considers itself as a Melanesian country, we have 13 million Melanesians in Indonesia, the most populated country with Melanesian people,” he said.

“We continue in assisting Vanuatu because we think this is what we should do as Pacific neighbours and brothers, so this is the time for us to engage with them,” he said.

He said Indonesia valued the importance of having good relations with all Pacific countries.

“At the end of last year, we had a forum called it Indonesia Pacific Development Forum, and on the forum, we coordinated and consolidated international support for the Pacific,’’ he said.

“The main objective for having this forum is how to strengthen development cooperation with Pacific countries.

“The rationale is more about [that] we really want to have a high relationship between Indonesia and the Pacific as we want to grow together because we think that the future belongs to us,” Jailani said.

Doddy Morris is a Vanuatu Daily Post reporter. Republished with permission.

Indonesia has sent 30 tonnes of relief supplies to aid the Vanuatu government’s recovery efforts post three major natural disasters earlier this year.

The humanitarian aid has been delivered on a My Indo Airline B737-800 cargo aircraft that departed from Soekarno-Hatta International Airport and landed at Vanuatu’s Bauerfield International Airport today.

A representative of the Indonesian embassy in Canberra, Doddy, said the relief consisted mainly of food, tents and agricultural tools.

• READ MORE: Other West Papua news

According to BBN Breaking News, Indonesia is also sending a 14-member humanitarian mission to Vanuatu.

“The team will include representatives from the Coordinating Ministry for Cultural Affairs, Foreign Affairs Ministry, the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), and the State Intelligence Agency (BIN),” BNN Breaking reported.

“They will work closely with local authorities and international organisations to ensure that the aid is distributed effectively and efficiently.”

“Indonesia’s commitment to providing aid to Vanuatu showcases its strong ties to the Pacific region and its continued efforts to promote regional cooperation and support.

It also highlights the importance of international solidarity and cooperation in addressing global challenges.”

However, the vice president of the Vanuatu Free West Papua Association, Lai Sakita, who was at the airport this morning, said the arrival of the relief supplies was “suspicious”.

He warned that the Vanuatu government needed to be very careful of the Indonesian assistance with the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) leaders summit due to be held in July this year.

The Free West Papua movement wants the MSG leaders to approve West Papua’s application to become a full member of the sub-regional agency at this summit.

Indonesia’s influence in the Pacific Islands is growing, but is shadowed by disquiet over its region of Papua, known widely as West Papua.

The West Papuan independence movement has significant traction in the region, where it continues to push for its self-determination aspirations to be addressed by the international community.

Considering Papua’s political status as non-negotiable, Indonesia has been busy strengthening ties with a number of countries in the three Pacific Islands regions of Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia.

READ MORE: Indonesia strengthens ties with Pacific ‘good friends’

Amid a flurry of diplomatic activity in recent months, Indonesian cabinet minister Wiranto attended independence anniversary celebrations on Nauru, and the president of the Federated States of Micronesia was given red carpet treatment in Jakarta.

Jakarta says this is about working together with Pacific island countries on mutual interests. Others say it’s principally about quelling support for West Papuan independence aims.

Some regional observers even suspect the hand of Jakarta was at play behind the change in the Solomon Islands government’s policy on West Papua since Rick Hou replaced Manasseh Sogavare as prime minister last December.

April’s visit by a Solomon Islands delegation to Indonesia’s Papua and West Papua provinces caused an upset among some elements of civil society in Honiara, but showed how extensive Jakarta’s diplomatic outreach has become.

Serious threat
The secretary of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, Rex Rumakiek, said Australia’s angst about the rising influence of China in the Pacific missed a more serious regional threat.

“The Melanesian countries are not very much concerned about Chinese influence. They are concerned mostly about the Indonesians’ influence in Melanesia, because they’re very destructive, they go right down to village level.

“They bribe people and buy political parties to change the government and so on. It’s already happening. It’s much more serious than the Chinese influence,” Rumakiek said.

LISTEN: RNZ’s Dateline Pacific

A spokesperson from Indonesia’s Embassy in Canberra, Sade Bimantara, said Rumakiek’s accusation was unsubstantiated and false.

He said Indonesia had consistently engaged and worked with Pacific Island nations for many years while respecting each other’s domestic affairs and sovereignty.

“On the contrary, a handful of people claiming Papuan heritage and living overseas are the ones interfering in the domestic politics of Papua and West Papua provinces,” Bimantara said.

“They are not citizens and were never democratically elected into public offices in those provinces by the 2.7 million voters of Papua and West Papua. And yet, they claim to be the rightful heir to the provinces.”

“Demographically, geographically, we are part of the Pacific. One third of the total area of the country, to the east, is inhabited by Melanesians and Polynesians,” he said.

Joku, a West Papuan who frequently represents Indonesia at meetings of the Melanesian Spearhead Group and the Pacific Islands Forum, said the country wanted to help small island countries with their development needs.

He cited Indonesian assistance in plans to build a convention centre in Tuvalu and a sports stadium in Kiribati as examples.

Indonesia is also offering help to Pacific Island countries with efforts to protect their all-important marine environment, although it is not the only larger country doing so.

Foreign governments sometimes take up the issue of human rights abuses in West Papua in their representations to Indonesia’s government.

But few human rights defenders would have been satisfed with wan assurances by Dutch Foreign Affairs minister Stef Blok that he discussed a recent damning Amnesty International report on the issue when in Jakarta last month.

Regional efforts obstructed
Some Pacific governments, notably Vanuatu, are concerned that Indonesia has obstructed efforts in regional forums to address West Papuan grievances.

A former Vanuatu prime minister and leader of the Vanua’aku Pati, Joe Natuman, said the move by some members of the Melanesian Spearhead Group to accept Indonesia into the regional organisation was problematic.

“Whoever had that wise idea is causing us problems,” he explained.

“You know, they said Indonesia comes into join [the MSG] to discuss issues of West Papua; Indonesia comes in and it doesn’t want to discuss West Papua. So I think we have to review the Indonesian membership of MSG.”

But Franz Albert Joku said it was not the responsibility of the MSG or Pacific Islands Forum to speak for Papuans. He said Papuans should be allowed to speak for themselves “by dealing with our own leaders in Jakarta and our own government.

“It’s not for offshore organisations like the Melanesian Spearhead Group and the Pacific Islands Forum to decide what should happen in Papua. Our position and especially our future is firmly within our grip.”

However, the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), which has observer status at the MSG, argues that West Papuans are not free to express themselves and their political aspirations in their homeland.

Thousands arrested
Indonesian police arrested thousands of Papuans in 2016 when they demonstrated in Papuan cities in support of the Liberation Movement.

Jakarta also remains sensitive to regional calls for West Papua’s political status, and the controversial process by which the former Dutch New Guinea, was incorporated into Indonesia in the 1960s, to be reviewed.

Last month while in Fiji, Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister Peter O’Neill was reported to have encouraged regional countries to take the issue of West Papua to the United Nations Decolonisation Committee.

Following this, PNG’s Foreign Minister Rimbink Pato made a visit to Jakarta for talks with his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi, reaffirming his country’s support for the status quo in the Papuan provinces.

“They are an integral part of the Republic of Indonesia,” he said.

“There has been some misreporting on this issue. Papua New Guinea’s position has not changed and there is no intention to ever change it.”

Natuman said he understood the sensitivity of the matter for PNG as West Papua’s neighbour.

“But I think they should be honest with themselves and discuss openly with the MSG and with Indonesia, and of course eventually we have to involve the United Nations,” he said.

United Nations mess
“This is a mess created by the United Nations, and the the United Nations have to come clean on this.”

The regional calls for international action on West Papua persist from the likes of New Zealand government MP Louisa Wall, who is among a small but vocal group of local MPs pushing for the issue of West Papuan self-determination to be heard at the UN.

“I believe in self-determination, I believe in indigenous rights. This is a right of the West Papuan indigenous peoples to re-litigate something that has been highlighted, actually was done in an unjust and unfair way,” Wall said.

Wall’s voice is still only part of a minority in New Zealand’s government whose formal position remains in support of Indonesian control of Papua.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, reiterated this support to Indonesia’s president Joko Widodo during his state visit to Wellington earlier this year.

The issue of human rights abuses in Papua is a standing item on the agenda of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), whose leaders meet in Nauru next month.

Yesterday, the outgoing Forum chairman, Samoa’s Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi, suggested some Pacific leaders sensationalised the alleged abuses by Indonesian military in Papua.

Speaking on national Radio 2AP, Tuilaepa, who has forged closer ties with Indonesia in the past year, conceded that various West Papuans wanted independence and sought to stop infringements of their human rights.

Tuilaepa said that where it concerned human rights issues, they should take up the matter through the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

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Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan and his delegation’s recent trip to Fiji and Papua New Guinea demonstrates Indonesia’s commitment to forging strong bilateral relations with South Pacific countries.

The Indonesian delegation arrived in Suva, Fiji, on March 30 for a visit aimed at boosting bilateral relations between Indonesia and Fiji.

Minister Pandjaitan paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, held a bilateral meeting with Fiji’s Minister for Agricultural, Rural, Maritime Affairs and National Disaster Management Ina Seriaritu, and a luncheon with Foreign Minister Ratu Inoke Kubuabola.

The minister extended financial assistance worth US$5 million to help the victims of Tropical Cyclone Winston that hit Fiji in late February and delivered a letter from President Joko Widodo to Prime Minister Bainimarama.

In addition to the financial aid, Indonesia also sent US$3 million worth of goods for the victims of the cyclone.

The minister remarked that Indonesia would deploy engineer troops to help reconstruct Queen Victoria School on Lawaki Island.

“In early May, the TNI’s (Indonesian Defence Forces) engineer troops will arrive. We will also send 100 units of hand tractors to help develop agriculture here,” Pandjaitan said.

“I have conveyed to Prime Minister Bainimarama and Foreign Minister Kubuabola that we will be consistently present in the region,” the minister said.

Aid plan hailed
Minister Seriaritu hailed the aid and cooperation offered by Indonesia.

He said Indonesia was a key player in the Asia-Pacific region, and the country’s success in disaster management and mitigation had received international recognition.

However, he hoped that the two countries would intensify cooperation in other crucial fields such as education, agriculture, economy, and food security.

As part of the delegation’s agenda, Indonesian Chairman of the General Election Commission Husni Kamil Manik signed a memorandum of understanding on cooperation for the management of general elections with his Fijian counterpart.

During the meeting with Foreign Minister Kubuabola, Pandjaitan expressed Indonesia’s keenness to become a full member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG).

Kubuabola remarked that the government of Fiji had proposed upgrading the membership status of Indonesia in the MSG from an associate member to a full member to strengthen the nation’s position in the group of Melanesian countries.

Special staff of the Indonesian Foreign Ministry on strategic issues Djauhari Oratmangun, who was a member of the delegation, noted that Fiji was Indonesia’s “good friend” in the South Pacific region.

Backing MSG membership
In the context of the MSG, Fiji is among the countries to have supported Indonesia’s bid for full membership of the group, Oratmangun stated.

Similar support was also expressed by the PNG government when Minister Pandjaitan and his delegation had visited Port Moresby on April 1 after concluding their trip to Fiji.

Indonesia’s application to become a full MSG member was being processed, and thereafter, the way to obtain the full membership status would be opened, PNG Foreign and Immigration Minister Rimbink Pato said, following a bilateral meeting with the Indonesian delegation.

Papua New Guinea will host the MSG 21st Summit in 2017.

During its 20th Summit held in Honiara in the Solomon Islands on June 26, 2015, Indonesia had obtained associate member status.

At the bilateral meeting, Pato stated that the constructive and open talks covered various cooperation opportunities including in the fields of economy, investment, trade, and energy, particularly LNG, and flights connecting the two neighboring countries.

“The model of cooperation we have discussed covers many fields ranging from culture and trade to military cooperation. We also discussed a plan to cooperate in liquefied natural gas (LNG), palm oil, and intelligence,” minister Pato said.

Narrowing differences
“Basically, this cooperation is aimed at narrowing any differences between the two countries,” he said.

They also discussed cooperation between the two nations’ police and military, especially to guard the border areas.

PNG, which will host an APEC Summit in 2018, is eager to take a cue from Indonesia on ways to organise a major international meeting.

The two countries had signed 11 memoranda of understanding and three agreements to strengthen bilateral partnership based on mutual respect, he said.

“We will also learn from Indonesia’s rich experiences in democracy, and we [PNG and Indonesia] will move together and work in tandem,” said Pato, who was accompanied by PNG Trade Minister Richard Mare and National Development Planning Minister Charles Abe.

Minister Pandjaitan remarked that the two delegations also discussed cooperation in immigration affairs, trade, and the development of the palm oil industry.

“The Indonesian trade ministry’s delegation and business mission will visit PNG in late April this year. Our relations are becoming closer,” Pandjaitan affirmed.

PNG ties strengthened
At the invitation of PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill, President Joko Widodo visited Port Moresby last May 11-12 to strengthen bilateral cooperation in economic, trade, investment, and infrastructure construction fields.

The two leaders also agreed to increase the value of bilateral trade beyond trading activities in the border areas that reaches US$4.5 million a year.

To boost Indonesian diplomacy in the South Pacific region, Minister Pandjaitan proposed an appointment of an Indonesian special envoy to the South Pacific region.

The special envoy is also expected to help enhance communication between Indonesia and the governments and people of the countries in the region.

Indonesia will be consistently present in the South Pacific by sending ministers to 16 countries in the region, according to Pandjaitan.

“Diplomacy is important and we should be aggressively explaining to states in the South Pacific about the conditions and situation in Indonesia, including what we have been doing in the area of human rights,” he said.

Citing as an example, he said a number of parties in the South Pacific region thought that Indonesian people of the Melanesian race only inhabited the provinces of Papua and West Papua.

’11 million Melanesians’
Indonesia has at least 11 million people of Melanesian race, spreading among other things in the provinces of Papua, West Papua, Maluku, North Maluku and East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), Pandjaitan said. [Asia Pacific Report editor: This claim about the number of Melanesians in Indonesian provinces is highly contested and unverified].

In fact, the majority of Melanesians are living in Indonesia, approximately 80 percent of them, Kacung Marijan, Director-General of Culture at the Ministry of Education and Culture, said while Indonesia organised a Melanesian Cultural Festival in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, on last October 27-30.

To promote cultural pluralism existing in countries having a Melanesian population, the festival’s theme was “Celebrating the cultural diversity of Melanesian World”.

The Indonesian government hoped that the festival to help improve the public understanding of the Melanesian race, and strengthen cooperation among Melanesian countries.