Pacific Churches Call On Leaders To Support West Papua Conference of Churches attends UN decolonization meeting in Fiji

Pacific Churches Call On Leaders To Support West Papua
Conference of Churches attends UN decolonization meeting in Fiji

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (Radio New Zealand International, May 19, 2014) – The Pacific Conference of Churches is calling on leaders attending a United Nations meeting on decolonisation this week in Fiji to advocate for West Papua to be added to the UN list of non self-governing territories.

A spokesman for the conference, Netani Rika, says when the church leaders met last year in Solomon Islands they reiterated their stand that the people of the Pacific should be free to choose self-determination.

The Pacific Regional Seminar for the Eradication of Colonialism is being hosted by the committee in charge of implementing the UN's declaration on the granting of independence to colonial territories in Nadi.

But Netani Rika says West Papua isn't even on that list.

"What we're calling for at the moment is for Pacific Island countries and their representatives on the C24 to take initiatives which will see that the voices of the West Papuan people can be heard and that West Papua can be placed on this list also," says Rika.

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