Committee says unity on West Papua critical

With 22 days left before the West Papua Summit is held in Port Vila from November 30 to December 4, the West Papua Reconciliation and Unification Committee is appealing to the Natuman-led Government to stay united on the agenda of West Papua Reconciliation and Unification Process.

Chairman of West Papua Unification Committee, Pastor Allan Nafuki, says the countdown is on for the historic initiative to take place on Vanuatu soil because no other country in the world has dared to offer such a helping hand, where the people of West Papua can come together to plan their destiny during the last 50 years.

The West Papua Summit is endorsed by the Government and will be jointly hosted by the Vanuatu Christian Council and Vanuatu National Council of Chiefs at the National Council of Chiefs’ Nakamal.

The Chairman says his Committee is confident the Government will always own one policy in the West Papua struggle towards a peaceful self-determination to ensure the Melanesian brothers and sisters’ struggle is achieved.

The Committee wishes to remind the Government’s commitment towards the first Prime Minister of Vanuatu, the late Fr. Walter Lini’s statement which once said that “Vanuatu will not be free until all Melanesian brothers and sisters are free”.

Meanwhile the Committee is working tirelessly towards the Leaders’ Summit from November 30 to December 4. “This had emerged immediately after the Melanesian Spearhead Group Leaders’ Summit in June 2014, which declined a membership application by the Port Vila-based West Papua National Coalition for Liberation (WPNL) on the grounds that WPNCL was not sufficiently representative of all the major West Papua Groups, Communities and Organisations,” the Chairman says.

He says the purpose of the Summit is to bring together the representatives of all the Resistance Groups and Organisations for reconciliation and to agree on a single entity which will not only resubmit an application to the MSG for an “observer” status, but to agree also on a new roadmap for establishing/building broad-based unity amongst the leaders and the people of west Papua, and development strategies for achieving peaceful self-determination immediately.

Pastor Nafuki says his Committee has invited over 80 leaders, delegates and observers inside and outside West Papua and the military, Tentara Pembebasan National Papua Barat (TPNPB) to the upcoming summit.

He says the invitation was also sent to the Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture, Minister for Public Enterprise and Statement Investment both from the Government of Papua New Guinea and the Governor for the National Capital District. “The objective of the process is not only to obtain MSG Observer Status but also to continue to nurture and strengthen the healing process and the unity of the leaders and the people of West Papua, in order to ensure peaceful and dignified self-determination is achieved.

“This will be a major step forward and a historic breakthrough towards the shared objective of independence for West Papua,” Nafuki says.