Bob Carr (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I just asserted—I hope my language was clear enough—that no evidence has been presented to us of the forced removal of children from homes in the Papuan provinces and their religious inculcation elsewhere in Indonesia. We have not seen evidence of it. Our embassy in Jakarta takes a keen interest in all human rights questions that arise out of Papua. It takes a keen interest and investigates them. We maintain a dialogue with Indonesia about this. In my meetings with the Indonesians—with the President, with the Foreign Minister—our Indonesian interlocutors have raised the matter of Papua before I have been able to get to it. The President has underlined his commitment to special autonomy, and we agree with his interpretation that economic growth, the achievement of prosperity, is the best path forward—linked to special autonomy—for the people of those two provinces.