Australian Financial Review
Indonesia allows Morning Star flag to fly over parts of West Papua
Nov 11, Rowan Callick

Indonesia has reached a ground-breaking agreement with West Papua's independence movement to allow the latter's Morning Star flag to be flown alongside the Indonesian flag in key centres.

The independence movement has credited the readiness of Australia and the other 15 members of the Pacific Islands Forum to acknowledge the issue with playing a major role in achieving the breakthrough.

Mr Franzalbert Joku, the international affairs moderator for the Papua Council, said on Friday the agreement between the council and the senior Indonesian officials in West Papua (formerly Irian Jaya)
approved the flying of the Morning Star flag alongside the Indonesian flag in the province's 12 districts and two municipalities.

He said: "This will help allay fears within Australia and Papua New Guinea of an escalation of violence. But there is no cause for complacency, given the fluid circumstances within Indonesia."

The raising of the Morning Star flag has over the past three decades led to numerous incidents of violence in the province.

In Wamena a month ago, 31 people were killed in demonstrations that followed the removal of a flag.

Mr Joku said: "My interpretation is that the Indonesian Government is taking note of the wider international community's growing interest in the issue - as demonstrated by the discussions of the
Pacific Islands Forum in Kiribati a fortnight ago."

He said the pressure from abroad "also operates on the Papua Council leadership, to insist on finding peaceful solutions through negotiations''.

In return for the flag concession, Mr Joku said, the Indonesians are urging the West Papuans to abandon discussing sovereignty and nationhood, and to consider instead changes from within.

Jakarta has already offered autonomy to West Papua and the even more troubled province of Aceh. But the terms have yet to be spelled out.

The deadline for accepting the autonomy offer has been extended from January 1 to May 1, allowing time for further talks.