PACNEWS: By Pita Ligaiula in Koror, Palau
MELANESIAN Spearhead Group (MSG) leaders have warned that Indonesia’s Associate Member status could be reviewed in 2027 if Jakarta does not facilitate a long-standing request for a visit by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to West Papua.
The decision, reached during an MSG Caucus on the margins of the 55th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ Meeting in Koror, Palau, has been welcomed by the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), which says Melanesian leaders are moving towards greater accountability over the situation in the territory.
ULMWP Vice President Executive Octovianus Mote said the movement was encouraged by the MSG leaders’ decision.
“We are deeply encouraged by the decision of the MSG leaders to move beyond the language of diplomacy and toward the language of accountability,” Mote told PACNEWS.
“The ULMWP has been advocating for this shift for a very long time, and at last, the cries and suffering of the Papuan people are being heard by the Melanesian leaders whom we deeply respect.”
Mote said the decision reflected growing frustration over Indonesia’s handling of concerns raised by Melanesian countries and West Papuan representatives.
He said the MSG had originally engaged Indonesia in the hope of creating a pathway for dialogue over West Papua.
“The goodwill of the MSG leaders, who welcomed Indonesia with the intention of bringing Papua and Indonesia to the same table to seek a peaceful and meaningful way forward, with the facilitation of Melanesian leaders within the MSG, was instead used to undermine and marginalise the ULMWP,” Mote said.
Mote accused Indonesia of using the issue of sovereignty to avoid scrutiny of allegations concerning human rights and the treatment of indigenous Papuans.
“Even more seriously, the language of sovereignty has been used as a shield to deny the reality facing the Papuan people,” he said.
Mote described the situation as involving what the ULMWP considers “a slow-motion genocide”, environmental destruction and the erosion of Papuan identity.
He said restrictions on access to West Papua had prevented greater international scrutiny.
“These realities have been concealed from the international community by restricting access for journalists, diplomats and international humanitarian organisations,” Mote said.
“By limiting independent scrutiny and access to West Papua, the suffering of the Papuan people has been kept largely out of sight of the world.”
Mote said the MSG decision was therefore more than a diplomatic development.
“It is a significant step toward accountability, transparency and recognition of the voices of the Papuan people,” he said.
“We welcome this change and urge the MSG to remain steadfast in ensuring that the concerns, rights, dignity
and aspirations of the Papuan people are finally given the attention they deserve.”
However, Fiji’s head of delegation and Minister for Foreign Affairs Sakiasi Ditoka, whose country is the current Chair of the MSG, said the group had not yet reached a conclusion on whether Indonesia’s Associate Member status should ultimately be reviewed.
Speaking to PACNEWS in Koror, Ditoka said there was still room for dialogue and negotiation with Jakarta over concerns about the welfare of Melanesians in West Papua.
“I think as far as MSG membership is concerned, we have not reached that conclusion,” Ditoka said when asked whether Indonesia’s Associate Member status could be reviewed in 2027.
“We feel that there is a lot of room for discussion in this area. We still can negotiate going forward in trying to look after the welfare of our kinfolk in West Papua.”
Ditoka said the MSG’s concerns should not be interpreted as a challenge to Indonesia’s sovereignty over West Papua.
“What we’d like to let Jakarta know is that it’s not a matter of sovereignty. As far as sovereignty is concerned, we have settled that. They belong to Indonesia. But they are our people, they are our blood.
“When things happen to them, it’s painful to us. So that’s why the concern,” said Ditoka.
He said confrontation had not always produced results and suggested that the way forward could involve direct, high-level discussions between Indonesia and MSG leaders.
“But eventually that doesn’t prove to be productive. We’re trying to go down that path and maybe what we’d like to do is have high-level discussions between Jakarta, Suva and the rest of the MSG nations.
“And let the leaders talk. Maybe we can provide a way forward in trying to look after our kinfolk in West Papua,” Ditoka said.
In its official record of decisions, the MSG said its leaders, ministers and official representatives had reaffirmed the group’s long-standing support for a visit by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to the Papuan provinces of Indonesia.
The leaders recalled decisions made at the 22nd MSG Leaders’ Meeting in 2023 and Pacific Islands Forum resolutions dating back to 2019, which were reiterated in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
The MSG urged continued engagement with Indonesia to facilitate the visit before the end of Indonesia’s term as President of the UN Human Rights Council on 31 December 2026.
MSG leaders requested the Chair to formally write to Indonesia, as an Associate Member, seeking approval for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit West Papua.
The proposed visit would examine human rights issues in Papua and produce a report for consideration by the next MSG Summit in 2027.
The leaders said the report should be delivered in time for consideration at that meeting.
The MSG decision said that if the requested actions were not undertaken, “the Associate Member status shall be reviewed accordingly at the next MSG Summit in 2027.”
Sebastien Gillioz, Deputy Representative for the UN Human Rights Pacific Regional Office, said his office does not cover Indonesia or West Papua, but confirmed that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has been seeking access to the territory.
“I just want to state from the outset that the regional Pacific office that I belong to doesn’t cover that part of the region, but what I can say is that the UN Human Rights High Commissioner has been requesting the visit to West Papua,” Gillioz told PACNEWS.
His comments reinforce the long-standing position of the MSG and Pacific Islands Forum that Indonesia should facilitate a visit by the UN human rights body to Papua.
Civil society organisations also welcomed the MSG decision, saying Indonesia should respect its obligations as an Associate Member of the Melanesian grouping.
Joey Tau, Chair of the Pacific Regional Non-Governmental Organisations (PRNGO) Alliance and Coordinator of the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG), told PACNEWS that Indonesia must allow an
independent mission into West Papua.
“As an Associate Member of MSG, Indonesia must facilitate an independent mission into West Papua,” Tau said.
“This is not only an outstanding concern for Melanesian peoples, but one for the wider Pacific.”
Tau said Jakarta must respect the principles upon which the MSG was established.
“Indonesia must respect the founding principles of MSG and not dictate or bully its way through MSG members,” he said.
Ditoka said, however, that as current Chair, Fiji had listened carefully to concerns raised by MSG members and wanted those issues to be further discussed by Pacific leaders.
“During MSG, I think some sensitive issues were getting a whistle-blower, as well as those we had raised during the meeting.
“We had let those nations that had raised those issues know that we listened to what they had raised and their
concerns as chair, current chair of MSG.
“And then, hopefully, during the leaders’ retreat, which can be raised again. And that’s something that we’ve asked that be raised at that forum,” he said.
The MSG decision marks one of the strongest positions taken by the Melanesian grouping on West Papua in recent years, although Ditoka’s comments indicate Fiji wants to pursue further dialogue with Jakarta before any final decision is taken on Indonesia’s Associate Member status.
MSG members also requested their embassies in Jakarta to support follow-up engagement with the Indonesian Government.
The MSG also linked its position to ongoing efforts by the Pacific Islands Forum to engage Indonesia on West Papua.
The leaders noted the appointment of the Prime Ministers of Fiji and Papua New Guinea as Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ Envoys on West Papua at the Forum meeting in Rarotonga in 2023.
They also recalled the decision of the 54th Pacific
Islands Forum Leaders’ Meeting in Honiara in 2025, which requested that a mission be undertaken in 2026.
MSG leaders agreed to offer additional MSG representation to the Forum Leaders’ Envoys as part of the proposed fact-finding mission.
The move would strengthen Melanesian representation in the Forum-led engagement and provide a direct role for MSG members in efforts to assess developments on the ground.
The Caucus also considered a proposal for MSG leaders to meet Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto on the margins of the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York later this year.
The proposed meeting would provide another opportunity for Melanesian leaders to raise concerns about West Papua directly with Indonesia’s leadership.
MSG leaders requested their Chair to provide an update on the decisions and proposed follow-up actions to the 55th Pacific Islands Forum Leaders’ Meeting…. PACNEWS