>From AWPA

Pacific Magazine (Islands Business)
December 2002
Editorial: We Say

The bombings in Bali are a setback for the independence movement in Indonesian-occupied West Papua. In its October edition, Islands Business in appeasing Indonesia by using their membership of the Pacific Islands Forum to block the Forum from embracing the self-government cause in West Papua. Since the Bali atrocity Australia, judging from how its political leaders and the Australian media have reacted, is frantic to forge the closest possible chummy links with the Indonesian regime. More on The bombings in Bali are a setback for the independence movement in Indonesian-occupied West Papua

Pacific Weekly Review
28 Oct-3 Nov 2002, Ben Bohane

Port Vila: A senior Indonesian diplomat who went to Vanuatu last week on a mission to try and persuade the Vanuatu government against supporting the West Papuan independence movement has left without success, according to a statement from Vanuatu’s Foreign Affairs department. Vanuatu’s Deputy PM and Foreign Affairs Minister Serge Vohor met with Mr Imron Cotan, who is deputy chief of Mission to the Indonesian embassy in Australia, but said that while Vanuatu hopes to maintain a friendly and co-operative relationship with Indonesia, onthe issue of West Papua, Vanuatu will continue to support the West Papuan people’s struggle for independence. More on Indonesian diplomat leaves Vanuatu “empty handed”