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ndonesia insists it will be very transparent and entertain any legitimate concerns from the international community over developments in Papua and West Papua provinces, as long as they are not used to fan the flames of separatism.

Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi categorically rejected repeated allegations suggesting human rights atrocities continued to occur in the country’s easternmost provinces.

Speaking to reporters at the end of meetings at the United Nations headquarters, Retno said she had openly discussed Jakarta’s efforts to develop the Papuan economy, putting to bed questions raised during bilateral talks with the president of Nauru.

“I told [Nauru’s leader] that I was fully aware there was a lot of misinformation being peddled by certain parties, as if human rights violations continued to happen in Papua,” Retno said Friday evening. “Those allegations are completely false.”

At the UN General Assembly in New York, the prime ministers of the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu called on the UN’s Human Rights Council to formally investigate long-standing allegations of human rights abuses in Papua and West Papua.

Vanuatu Prime Minister Charlot Salwai said the people of West Papua must be allowed the right to self-determination, to free themselves of the “yoke of colonialism.”

“The international community has been witnessing a gamut of torture, murder, exploitation, sexual violence and arbitrary detention inflicted on the nationals of West Papua, perpetrated by Indonesia, but the international community has turned a deaf ear to the appeals for help,” Salwai said in the UN general debate.

The Solomons leader, Manasseh Sogavare, said on Friday the UN’s sustainable development goal motto of “no one left behind” would be “synonymous to empty promises unless we in the UN take active steps to address the plight of the people of West Papua.”

The provinces of Papua and West Papua form the western half of the island of New Guinea, where Indonesia is consistently accused of gross human rights violations and violent suppression of the region’s separatist movement.

In a veiled response to both island nations by way of talking to Nauru, Retno said Indonesia was fully open to discussing the development of both provinces or any concerns of human rights violations.

“But I also firmly said, should this issue be raised in support of the Papuan separatist movement, that is where I draw the line. Any form of support for separatism — especially coming from a sovereign state — is contrary to the spirit of the UN Charter,” she told The Jakarta Post.

Nauru itself heaped praise for Indonesia’s increased engagement with the small island nations of the South Pacific, underlining its continuous respect for Indonesia’s territorial integrity, the foreign minister added.

Unsurprisingly, support has been waning for the separatists, who as non-state actors are void from participating in a forum of nations.

The Marshall Islands, which backed the separatist movement last year, did not raise the Papua issue during a bilateral meeting on Saturday, Retno revealed.

The Marshall Islands, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands, all of which are members of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), offered damning remarks about Indonesia in last year’s UN General Assembly.

At the time, a junior diplomat used Indonesia’s right of reply to respond with scorching remarks. Several diplomatic sources have said recently that there would likely be a repeat of that incident this year.

Indonesia’s interests are underpinned by the demographic and geographic reality that 11 million people of Melanesian ancestry live in five of the archipelagic country’s eastern provinces. The figure makes up some 80 percent of the total Melanesian population.