Parkop wants West Papua issue dealt with

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NATIONAL Capital District Governor Powes Parkop has called on Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Rimbink Pato not to shy away from discussing the West Papua issue on the international stage.
“It is important that we talk about the West Papua issues with the Indonesian Government and at the international forum,” he said.
“We have to address it openly and maturely. And I would like to see an open and mature type of discussion to take place.”
Parkop was responding to Pato’s ministerial statement in Parliament yesterday. “We are supposed to have a robust relationship with Indonesia because they are our immediate neighbors,” Parkop said.
“We should have integrated our economy. We should have closer people-to-people relationship. After all we are two countries sharing a land border.
“But we don’t have that relationship. And it is because there is a sore point (West Papua issue) and we must address that sore point. And I want to thank the Prime Minister Peter O’Neill for trying his best to address that sore point.”
He said the leadership of Indonesia under former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was open.
“But now we have a President Joko Widodo. We are not sure of his leadership on the West Papua issue.”
He said he had always supported what the West Papuans were fighting for.
“I have strong points about it,” Parkop said.
“It has been part of my life and I want us to progress it to a point where it has an outcome that is good for Indonesia and us, good for the people of West Papua.”