Fed: Too soon for talks with Yudhoyono on Papua issue - Howard

AAP General News (Australia)
04-19-2006
Fed: Too soon for talks with Yudhoyono on Papua issue - Howard

CANBERRA, April 19 AAP - It is not yet time for talks between the leaders of Australia
and Indonesia over the Papuan asylum seeker issue, Prime Minister John Howard said.

For the moment, an orderly diplomatic process was seeking to ease tensions, he said.

Mr Howard has again praised the improving democratic situation in Indonesia and re-emphasised
his support for Jakarta's sovereignty over Papua.

"We are working through the current difficulty in an orderly, diplomatic way," he told
Macquarie radio.

"The time for me to have a discussion with President (Susilo Bambang) Yudhoyono has not arrived.

"Michael L'Estrange, the head of Foreign Affairs, is going to Jakarta later this week.

"Mr Downer will undoubtedly talk to his counterpart and in time the president and I
will have a discussion."

The current tension arose with Australia's granting of temporary protection visas to
42 Papuan asylum seekers.

Mr Howard said a Newspoll showing that 77 per cent of Australians believed the people
of Papua should have right to self-determination was not as revealing as it seemed.

"It depends a bit (on) what question you ask," he said.

"If you said to people 'do you want Indonesia to disintegrate?', you'd probably get
an overwhelming majority of people saying `no'.

"I can understand sympathy for Papuans because there's an affinity in people's minds
between the Papuans of Indonesia and the Papuans of Papua New Guinea.

"Undoubtedly, it's not a perfect state but, in defence of Indonesia, I have to say
that things have improved and you have to give a lot of marks to a country that's travelled
a long journey from where it was eight or nine years ago."

AAP dep/jas/de

KEYWORD: PAPUA HOWARD

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