PNG News Updates - PNG opposition blasts extradition treaty with Indonesia

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PNG opposition blasts extradition treaty with Indonesia

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Eoin Blackwell, Papua New Guinea – Papua New Guinea's opposition has launched a broadside against Prime Minister Peter O'Neill over his government's recent signing of an extradition treaty with Indonesia.

Opposition leader Belden Namah says the treaty will be used to expel thousands of West Papuans who have crossed the 760km land border into PNG to escape Indonesian rule.

"The West Papuans are our stalk and creed," he said in a weekend statement. "We share the same island and we were one before colonial rule divided us. We should be the last country and people to speak against their struggle for self determination."

He said the Indonesian government was most likely to use the treaty to seek the extradition of West Papuan activists who have fled Indonesia in fear of reprisals.

The O'Neill government last week signed an extradition treaty and a raft of commercial and other civil agreements with Indonesia during a three-day state visit to Jakarta.

Also agreed by both countries is a "softer border" policy aimed at increasing cultural and economic ties between West Papua and PNG. Since 1986 PNG has officially maintained West Papua is an integral part of Indonesia.

Mr Namah says the government has let down the people of West Papua. "Peter O'Neill is not a Melanesian," Mr Namah said in a statement over the weekend.

"If he is Melanesian, he will feel the pain and the suffering of the West Papuans." At its annual meeting in New Caledonia last week, the Melanesian Spearhead Group agreed to delay a vote to admit West Papua by six months, despite intense lobbying by the Free West Papua movement.