The Chinese mechanic who secretly led a 40-year Melanesian revolution

By Rohan Radheya *

In 1975 when Tan Sen Thay fled his native land Indonesia he arrived in the Netherlands with just two gulden and a traditionally woven West Papuan noken bag.

Traditional accessories from West Papua alongside the outlawed West Papuan independence flag, the Morning Star. Photo: Rohan Radheya

The Chinese Indonesian claimed to Dutch immigration authorities that he was a senior representative of The West Papuan government, a predominantly black elite from a Melanesian province in Indonesiaʼs most Eastern federation.

Their government was on a critical stage waging a poorly equipped rebellion for independence.

“If we do not get Dutch assistance immediately, we will be wiped out,” he warned.

Tan Sen insisted that the Dutch had a moral obligation to help West Papua. After the infamous Trikora incident between the Netherlands and Indonesia in 1961, the Dutch were forced to relinquish Papua under international pressure.

In 1969, West Papua was annexed by Indonesia in a highly criticised referendum known as the Act of Free Choice.

Some 1025 tribal leaders were rounded up to vote for the political status of a population of nearly one million native Papuans while Indonesian soldiers allegedly held entire villages at gunpoint. The participants voted unanimously for Indonesian control.

Serious allegations of human rights violations would follow, including claims of war crimes and genocide committed against indigenous Papuans. Tan Sen and his comrades swore they would not accept the result of the referendum, but would continue battling Indonesia for the fate of the resource-rich island.

The Dutch government realised that by deporting Tan Sen, he would almost certainly be persecuted at return. He was granted political asylum in The Netherlands.

After first setting foot in The Netherlands, Tan Sen started working in an old garage in the Hague, just a few miles away from the Dutch Parliament.

“I then picked the Hague, the seat of the Dutch parliament because the Dutch government had a moral obligation to free my country,” he said.

The garage was a famous hotspot for producing golf cars that were nationally renowned in those days.

As a mechanic Tan Sen earned a minimum wage of 1000 gulden a month (about US$500 at the time) for working 80 hours a week. He would send the majority of his pay back to his comrades in West Papua who were launching sporadic hit and run attacks on Indonesian soldiers from the rugged forests of West Papua.

The remaining money he would wrap in a loin cloth and hide under his pillow while just surviving on simple instant noodles.

“A penny saved is a penny earned, that was my motto,” he said. After toiling for 12 years Tan Sen decided he had saved enough money to open his own gift-shop.

He named it after West Papuaʼs capital Hollandia (now named Jayapura).

His antique gift shop sold everything from imported porcelain statues and rare astrological gem stones to Confucian art paintings and cheap Chinese jewellery.

Money started to flow in and Tan Senʼs hard work began to pay off. He intensified his contributions to the Organisasi Papua Merdeka or OPM ( Free Papua Movement).

A rare photo of Tan Sen Thay (right) with Louis Nussy (left), an former high ranking Commander of the OPM, taken in the Hague, The Netherlands 2016. Photo: NGRWP

Tan Sen is still living in the Hague today, two blocks away from my home. In spring 2016 when I visited Tan Sen in the Hague he had closed his shop and converted it into his home.

Aged 92 and in perfect health, he had by then already made enough savings to secure his retirement. A wise Confucian who holds some of the best kept secrets to a lost history, Tan is still hoping one day to return to his beloved fatherland.

Warning me not to take photos and to leave my phone in the hall with my shoes, he shows me old documents that ”no one has ever seen”: old black and white photos of West Papuan guerrillas in the 1970’s, transaction data from high profile West Papuan sympathisers around the globe and testimonials from freshly joined recruits worldwide.

“Did you know that during the fall of Soeharto, one of his relatives came to us and offered us $500,000 to purchase arms?” Tan Sen asks.

I’m a little bit sceptical until he shows me records with numbers, dates, and figures relating to a foreign bank account.

He tells me that before he will die, he will send all documents to Leiden University in the Netherlands and sell them for a million euros. The profit will go to his West Papuan wife.

For years Tan Sen designed and weaved handmade uniforms, then smuggled them back to the OPM via refugee camps in areas near the border with PNG.

He would also arrange asylum for West Papuan refugees and finance their trips overseas to help them resettle in countries such as Sweden and Greece.

West Papuans who later took asylum in all corners of Europe had heard about him. In admiration at what he did for West Papua, they would address him as ‘Meneer Tan’ (Lord Tan) or ‘Bapak Tan’ (Father Tan) and send him homemade sago cakes with flowers and gifts.

If anyone wanted to join the independence movement abroad, Tan Sen was the only one mandated by the leadership of the OPM to take their oath of loyalty.

Recruits had to put their right hand on the bible, and smell the outlawed West Papuan morning star flag. If Tan Sen deemed them fit, they could join.

Seth Jafeth Rumkorem, the proclamator of the Republic of West Papua on 1 July,1971. Photo: NGRWP

The Quest for Nationhood

Tan Sen Thay was born in Surabaya, Indonesia in a wealthy Chinese family. Growing up as a Chinese Indonesian during the 1965 communist purge by Soeharto, his family fled to West Papua in fear of persecution. His parents were Hokkien transmigrants who migrated to Indonesia from China in search of a better life.

After making generous contributions to Papuan communities, his family soon started to build a respected reputation around The Abepura neighbourhood in West Papuaʼs capital Jayapura. When young Tan Sen saw mass human rights violations committed against West Papuans at the hands of the Indonesian Army, it angered him.

He made a drastic decision. The next day he would depart to the jungles to join the Papuan movement led by a former Papuan-Indonesian Sergeant named Seth Jafeth Rumkorem.

Rumkorem was a young charismatic Papuan officer trained in the Indonesian military academy in Bandung. His father Lukas Rumkorem had been part of a nationalistic Indonesian militia called Barisan Merah Putih. Initially both father and son opened their arms for the Indonesians after Dutch departure.

But after seeing Indonesian cruelty committed against his fellow countrymen, Seth Rumkorem would soon defect and go on to orchestrate a decades-long rebel insurgency from the Papuan jungles against the Indonesian army over the fate of the Western half of New Guinea island.

On 1 July 1971 Rumkorem and his followers gathered in the border areas with PNG. The intention was to boycott Papuan-Indonesian elections. In consultation with Tan Sen and other prominent Papuans, Rumkorem proclaimed a constitution, senate, army, national flag, and anthem.

The proclamation read as follows:

”To all the people of Papua, from Numbai to Merauke, from Sorong to Baliem(Star Mountains) and from Biak to Adi Island. With the help and blessing of God Almighty, we take this opportunity to declare to you all that today, 1 July 1971, the land and people of Papua have been proclaimed to be free and independent (de facto and de jure) May God be with us, and may the world be advised, that the true will of the people of Papua to be free and independent in their own homeland has been met.”

Sink or Swim

Tan Sen was a pious, gentle-mannered introvert with no real experience in war but with his steadfast loyalty and ethnic background he was considered the ultimate propaganda tool by his senior black commanders. Rumkorem appointed him as Minister of Finance in his cabinet.

Tan was asked to travel abroad to lobby for West Papuan independence. With a small delegation Tan Sen set off to London, Senegal and Solomon Islands to muster international support. His fellow comrades under the leadership of Rumkorem would stay fighting from the dense Papuan bush until Tan Sen and co managed to find diplomatic support.

“But without outside help it was impossible,” claimed Louis Nussy, one of Rumkoremʼs most trusted associates, who explained that their small force couldn’t match the Indonesian Army for equipment.

“The Indonesians were supplied by allies such as Russia and the United States. We were just depending on old rusty mouser rifles that we occasionally managed to snatch away from Indonesian soldiers,” he explained.

“There was no ammunition. We would just melt iron in the midst of the jungle,” he said.

Rumkorem and his comrades continued to suffer heavy casualties, and were losing huge terrain on a daily basis. After being pushed out of cities such as Jayapura, Biak and Manokwari, Rumkorem started to realise that it was a ‘sink or swim’ situation. He and his supporters retreated back to the forests while Tan Sen ended up taking asylum in the Netherlands.

Tan ran out of funds to continue his lobby abroad. “Returning would be suicide,” he later testified.

“A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. This was certainly the case in our context,” said Louis Nussy, who is now exiled in Greece.

“We were very efficient in guerrilla tactics but without proper hardware we were facing tough sledding.

“We realised it was just a matter of time before we would be captured or killed,” he explained.

In the meantime with Tan abroad, Rumkorem gained valuable intelligence from fellow independence fighters who had fled to Australia. A cell of West Papuan sympathisers at the highest political level in Vanuatu, were secretly willing to lend weapons and ammunition.

In 1982, Rumkorem decided to leave for the PNG border town of Vanimo to sail to Vanuatu. He was accompanied by eight of his most trusty men.

The plan was straightforward. Rumkorem would leave for arms and return back in a month.

He summoned his intelligence branch PIS (Papua Intelligence Service) and ordered them to obtain accurate weather schedules in PNG waters.

“What Rumkorem did not know was that the head of his intelligence unit had been detained and tortured by the notorious Indonesian special forces Kopassanda,’ʼ said Sonny Saba, one of Rumkoremʼs eight companions.

“In jail he was bribed and given the task to become an informant we would later found out.

“The enemies strategy was clear. Lure away the shepherd and there will just be sheep,” explained Saba, who now lives in exile in PNG.

“Rumkorem knew Indonesian Army tactics inside out, since he was a former Indonesian sergeant.”

“When he was away, the rebels would be a body without a brain,” he said.

Sonny Saba at his home in the border town of Vanimo, Papua New Guinea. Photo: Rohan Radheya

The head of Rumkoremʼs intelligence unit then came up with a date just before a devastating storm would strike PNG waters.

Rumkorem left full leadership on the shoulders of his defence minister, Richard Joweni and departed to Vanuatu.

Facing the storm, their prao (traditional Melanesian boat) broke down in the Pacific Ocean and they ended up stranded in Rabaul without food and supplies.

Fearing Indonesian pressure, PNG officials told Rumkorem they could not stay, but they also did not want to extradite them.

In Rabaul, the Papuans met NY Times journalist Colin Campbell. Rumkorem declared to him that his movement sought a revolution, universal human rights, freedom, democracy and social justice.

When asked if it included any Marxist factions, he replied, ”No, our country is a Christian country.”

Betrayal

When Rumkorem eventually realised that there were no weapons in Vanuatu, he called Tan Sen in the Hague.

“Rumkorem was crying, and understood he was tricked,” said Tan Sen. “He told me he wanted to return to West Papua.”

“I told him that I gained valuable intelligence that the Indonesians had sealed the border and were waiting for his return… returning would be suicide.”

“Don’t bite off more than you can chew,” I told him.

“Discredition is the better part of valour and you are no use to us death, I warned him.”

Tan Sen then arranged asylum for Rumkorem in Greece.

From Greece, Rumkorem migrated to the Netherlands from where he continued to lobby for West Papuan independence till his death in 2010, in Wageningen.

Rumkoremʼs departure would be a devastating blow for the remaining West Papuan fighters in the forest who had few or no military experience nor weapons.

Rumkoremʼs successor in West Papua Richard Joweni continued to wage a three-decades long guerrilla insurgency after Rumkoremʼs departure, but he was also no match against the modern weapons of the Indonesian army.

Fearing the death of more of his men, Joweni finally signed a ceasefire with Jakartaʼs special envoy Dr Farid Hussein in 2011, known as the 11-11-11-11 agreement.

The deal was brokered on 11 November 2011, at 11 o’clock at OPM headquarters in the West Papuan jungle.

Dr Hussein earlier also brokered a ceasefire with the independence movement in Aceh in what led to the Helsinki agreement which provided a basis for peace in the restive Indonesian region.

Joweni would later sneak out of West Papua using a fake passport and travel to Vanuatu to meet with Prime Minister Moana Carcasses Kalosil in 2013.

There he would discuss a proposal to lobby for West Papuan membership in the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

After the death of Joweni in 2015, the quest was carried onwards by the United Liberation Movement for West Papua under the stewardship of Andy Ayamiseba, Rex Rumakiek, Octo Mote and others, then eventually taken over by Oxford-based Benny Wenda.

Having attained observer status in the MSG the ULMWP has gained a measure of international recognition that worries Jakarta.

West Papuan Author and Journalist Aprila Wayar grieving at the grave of Seth Jafeth Rumkorem in the Hague. Photo: Rohan Radheya

Duct-taped windows

In Tan Sen’s living room hangs several old photos of ancient Confucian war-gods, a religion that was strictly forbidden during Soeharto’s rule.

The living room is decorated with several book closets full of rusty files and old documents. He has pasted all windows with duck tape and builded a fence around the glass in fear of Indonesian spies.

Tan Sen claims the military attache of the Indonesian consulate in the Hague recently paid him a visit.

“He asked for a list of West Papuan independence fighters who lived in exile in The Netherlands,” Tan reveals.

“I would be royally rewarded.”

“What did you do?” I ask curiously.

“What else? I slammed the door at his nose,” he laughs viciously.

Tan Sen doesn’t trust the internet and doesn’t own a smart phone. He doesn’t speak English but is fluent in Dutch.

He reads the full Dutch newspaper in the morning, take notes and then puts the newspaper in his archive. Tan has a full closet of newspapers dating back to 1980.

This pioneering figure in the Papuan independence movement uses an old landline number to occasionally remain in contact with his old comrades in the jungle.

He enquires about the latest developments in the MSG where the ULMWP continued to appeal for full membership.

It is as if the world has passed him by. Most West Papuans do not even know he is alive today.

Even Papuan intellectuals, activists, international journalists, and the young generation of Papuan fighters I met during my trips in West Papua did not know who Tan Sen was.

It has become clear that when the first generation of West Papuan independence fighters fled Papua, they took a huge chunk of Papuan history alongside with them.

The result was that the younger Papuan generation lost a huge part of their own history.

When I ask whether he remains optimistic for West Papuan Independence, Tan Sen says he feels disappointed by the new generation of Papuan independence fighters who don’t deem him fit to lead them any longer.

They would not visit him or include him in the decision making because they felt he was not a native Papuan and not eligible.

“How would you define a Papuan today?” he asks.

“There are tens of thousands of Papuans serving in Indonesian armed forces today.

“They consider themselves Indonesians. Why canʼt I consider myself Papuan Melanesian?

“If race would define your identity or nationality, there wouldn’t be white Africans or black Europeans today,” he explains, citing the plight of white Afrikaners in post independent Zimbabwe.

“What will happen to the millions of Indonesian transmigrants that are born in Papua after 1962 and consider themselves Papuan? ” he stresses.

I remain silent. He pauses before concluding.

“I am still optimistic that I can return to a free and independent West Papua one day,” he shrugs.

*Rohan Radheya is an award-winning filmmaker, documentary photographer and journalist from the Netherlands.

Source: RNZ

June 2, 2021 0

Vanuatu BUKAN Tempat Wisata Politik Aktivis Papua Merdeka untuk Datang Lalu Bubar

Dari Markas Pusat Pertahanan (MPP) Tentara Revolusi West Papua mengingatkan kepada semua pejuang Papua Merdeka untuk mencamkan dengan baik apa yang sebenarnya kita lakukan selama ini. Berdasarkan perintah dari Panglima Tertingi Komando Revolusi Gen. TRWP Mathias Wenda, dari Kantor Sekretariat TRWP, Lt. Gen. TRWP Amunggut Tabi menyampaikan penyesalan atas kinerja para pengurus ULMWP yang menjadikan Port VIla dan Vanuatu sebagai tempat wisata politik sementara dan kemudian meninggalkan negara kepulauan itu tanpa bekas.

Walaupun rakyat dan pemerintah Vanuatu, bersama dengan rakyat dan pemerintah Solomon Islands, bersama dengan pemerintah dan rakyat Papua New Guinea telah berbuat apa saja yang mereka bisa lakukan menurut kapasitas dan panggilan yang mereka miliki. Itu sudah cukup.

Kami para gerilyawan Papua Merdeka juga mengambil posisi di hutan rimba dan setiap saat bersedia mengangkat senjata. Akan tetapi para pejabat ULMWP yang seharusnya tinggal di Port Vila Vanuatu, ternyata tidak.

Situasi ini menunjukkan riwayat perjuangan bangsa Papua seperti yang dialami oleh para pendahulu kita kana terulang kembali.

Para tokoh Papua Merdeka antara lain Nicolaas Jouwe, Otto Ondawame, Jacob Prai, Seth Roemkorem, dan sebagainya, telah dibawa ke negara-negara barat. Tujuan perjalanan mereka secara pribadi memang untuk memperjuangkan Papua Merdeka dari negara barat sana. Mereka menduga bahwa mereka akan lebih kuat membantu Papua Merdeka dari sana.

Tetapi apa yang terjadi?

Satu hal yang jelas buat kita semua adalah “tenaga mereka, waktu mereka dan kekayaan mereka secara intelektual dan secara kharisma” dikuras habis, dipermainkan, dihabiskan, sampai-sampai mereka duduk menganga di kursi sebagai orang Papua, presiden, pemimpin lanjut usia dan mulai mengeluarkan kata-kata, kalimat-kalimat yagn tidak teratur, tidak membantu dan tidak mendukung Papua Merdeka.

Satu-satunya tokoh Papua Merdeka yang harus kita banggakan ialah Alm. Dr. OPM Otto Ondawame, sebagai tokoh intelektual OPM, beliau menyadari bahwa berkewarga-negaraan Swedia dan tinggal di Swedia sama sekali tidak membantu Papua Merdeka. Oleh karena itu, bersama Senior OPM Andy Ayamiseba, pada tahun 2001, mereka menginisiasi dan membentuk WPRRO (West Papuan Peoples’ Representative Office), yang kemudian pada tahun 2003 disahkan oleh Deputy Perdana Menteri dan Menteri Luar Negeri waktu itu, Serge Rialuth Voghor.

Para pemimpin Papua Merdeka yang ada di dalam negeri memang harus pulang ke tanah air, karena persoalan Papua Merdeka ada di dalam Negeri. Akan tetapi mengapa para aktivis dan pemimpin Papua Merdeka meninggalkan Vanuatu? Apakah pemeirntah Vanuatu mengusir mereka? Tidak, rakyat dan pemerintah Vanuatu telah secara resmi memberikan Kantor United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), mereka telah membantu ULMWP mendaftar menjadi anggota MSG (Melanesian Spearhead Group), mereka terus berusaha membantu sesuai degnan kemampuan mereka. Akan tetapi yang terjadi ialah para pemimpn Papua Merdeka TIDAK MENSYUKURI pemberian rakyat dan pemerintah Vanuatu.

Pengorbanan nyawa yang berjatuhan di rimba New Guinea, pahlawan tanpa nama yang bersebaran di mana-mana, dan kematian para tokoh di luar negeri seharusnya kita dapat akhiri scara bermartabat dengan cara memfokuskan diri kepada perjuangan ini dengan “menanam lutut” di nama kita harus tanam lutut, dan “duduk bertempat tinggal” di mana kita harus bertempat-tinggal demikian himbaian dari Gen. TRWP Mathias Wenda.

Dari MPP TRWP, mengundang semua tokoh, pemimpin dan aktivis Papua Merdeka, untuk menghargai apa yang telah dilakukan oleh para pahlawan Papua Merdeka, oleh saudara-saudara Melanesia, dan oleh Tuhan Yesus sebagai Panglima MahaTinggi Revolusi West Papua dengan cara

Datang dan duduk di Kantor ULMWP
Berpikir dan berbicara dari Kantor ULMWP
Selesaikan perjuangan Papua Merdeka dari Kantor ULMWP

Kalau tidak demikian, kita sudah di-anggap remeh oleh analis politik dan inteligen di seluruh dunia, terutama dari Idnonesia, bahwa irama panas-panas tahi ayam Papua Merdeka itu sudah biasa, sudah lebih dari setengah abad orang Papua memang begitu. Sebentar lagi akan dingin, sebentar lagi para Wisatawan Politik (Political Tourists) yang berkunjung ke Vanuatu akan pulang dan masalah akan redah. Buktinya benar, bukan?

OPM / ULMWP Final Declaration

Faces of West Papua struggle from left to right: Andy Ayamiseba, Benny Wenda, Barak Sope, Rex Rumakiek, and Paula Makabory pose with final declarations

“I as the founder of the Free West Papua Movement or Organisasi Papua Merdeka (OPM) want to acknowledge and support the United Liberation Movement of West Papua that it is a political organisation that carries the spirit of OPM that will continue the struggle and fulfill its final mission, which is establishing the full independence and sovereign Republic of West Papua.”

The statement has been sent by Jacob (Yakob) Prai from his home away from home in Sweden on December 28 of 2017, after meeting the Chairman of ULMWP, Benny Wenda.

The statement under official OPM letterhead states, “Therefore, in the name of God, this holy struggle, the ancestors of Papua, all our fallen heroes, the tears and suffering of the people of West Papua that continue to struggle from the jungles of New Guinea, mountains, valleys, islands, prisons, refugee camps as well as all those who live in exile in many parts of the world, that I as the leader of OPM and the founder of the struggle of free Papua, fully support and give full mandate to Mr. Benny Wenda as the leader of ULMWP and the political wing of OPM, to carry out the task as the leader of the nation of Papua.

“I thank the leaders and the people of West Papua, I hope that this recognition serves as a guideline to free the nation of Papua from Indonesian colonialism.”

His statement has received unanimous endorsement by the ULMWP Executive in the lobby of the Grand Hotel in Port Vila.

In a separate statement to support Jacob Prai’s historic confirmation of support for ULMWP, Executive members Andy Ayamiseba (for Legal CounseL) and Rex Rumakiek (for National Liberation Army of WP) declare, “We, the undersigned senior members of the independence movement of West Papua, the OPM recognise the importance of national unity in our struggle for independence.

“We also recognise the role undertaken by respected leaders of Vanuatu to bring about unity in the West Papuan struggle.

“Two national leaders in particular need commendation.

“They are the current Deputy Prime Minister, Honourable Joe Natuman and former Prime Minister Barak Maautamate Sope.”

The statement reminds the world about how West Papua’s first application to join MSG was deferred on the grounds that the movement lacked broad based support.

Deputy Prime Minister Natuman requested the formation of a West Papua Unification Committe that brought together West Papua leaders to Vanuatu where the Saralana Declaration of Unity was signed by all representatives of West Papua factions present.

Another historical leader, Barak Maautamate Sope has a long history of uniting different factions of the West Papua independence movement. In 1985 he invited two key leaders of OPM, Jacob Prai and (now deceased) Brigedier General Seth Rumkorem led by (now deceased) Theys Elluay, to Vanuatu where they signed a memorandum of understanding to work together. In 2000 he (then Prime Minister Barak Sope) included the two groups in his delegation to the United Nations Millennium Summit in New York. The Vanuatu Mission at the UN also facilitated an audience with the Decolonization Committee of 24.

The signing ceremony of the Port Vila Declaration was also witnessed by Andy Ayamiseba and Rex Rumakiek, who also signed the ‘Statement in support of Mr. Jacob Prai on his recognition and support for the United Liberation Movement for West Papua’.

Barak Sope also graced the signing ceremony at the Grand Hotel.

Asked to update the readers on what it was that prompted him and the late Father Walter Lini and other leaders of the Independence Struggle to take the stand that they took, he said the colonial history of all Pacific Islands were similar – cruel. “This is why Father Lini and all of us declared that Vanuatu would not be completely free until West Papua was free because today it is still colonised by Indonesia,” Sope says.

He criticizes Australia and Indonesia for alleged human rights abuse on West Papuans. “East Timor was the same and Vanuatu stood firmly for the freedom of the Timorese. Last year my wife and I were invited to Dili by the President of East Timor who awarded me the Order of East Timor for Vanuatu’s stand with its people for their freedom,” he says,

In addition he says Portugual had colonised East Timor and later Indonesia annexed it until under international outcry, it gave in to its freedom. Now Indonesia is doing exactly the same thing to West Papua.

When Sope was secretary general of the Vanua’aku Pati and Secretary of Foreign Affairs, he was mandated by Father Lini to unify FLNKS of New Caledonia and West Papua. “Now FLNKS is a member of MSG and yet, all the processes were done even before MSG was born. To get Prai and Rumkorem to come together, I had to travel to Europe to invite them to come to Vanuatu along with Brother Andy and Brother Rex,” he recalls.

He says Prai and Rumkorem were afraid of each other but at the end of it all, they agreed to unite and the Port Vila Declaration was signed at his family home on Ifira in 1985. “So today I am proud to know that Jacob Prai and the miltary arm of West Papua have agreed to become one with ULMWP,” Sope concludes.

ULMWP leaders say its endorsement signals their final declaration ending approximately 50 years of independence struggle as they prepare to attend the Melanesian Spearhead Group Meeting in Port Moresby next week, to hear the outcome of their application for full membership to join MSG. In fact they have already left and VCC representative Job Dalesa confirms the Chairman of ULMWP, Benny Wenda and Octavianus Mote have been allowed to attend the MSG meeting next week.

Meanwhile Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Ralph Regenvanu says as far as he was aware on Tuesday this week, West Papua was not on the MSG proposed agenda.

He has since written to the relevant authorities to make sure that West Papua is included, and promised to follow up on the issue with a phone call to his Papua New Guinea counterpart yesterday afternoon.

The Minister says after three o’clock yesterday afternoon that he was not able to get through to his PNG counterpart on the phone but that he has written to the MSG hosts to remind them to make sure that West Papua is on the agenda. “I am leaving for PNG tomorrow (today) and I will make sure that West Papua is included on the agenda”, he concludes.