Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his Indonesian counterpart on the arrests and trials of the group of West Papuan human rights defenders known as the Papuan Six.

We are aware of the arrest, and subsequent charging, of six people after they took part in a demonstration in Jakarta on 28 August 2019. We have not raised this specific case with the Indonesian authorities, but we regularly press the Indonesian authorities to address legitimate human rights concerns, including upholding the right of peaceful protest. The UK fully respects the territorial integrity of Indonesia, including Papua. The former Minister for Asia and the Pacific (Mrs Wheeler), raised Papua with the Indonesian Deputy Foreign Minister, Mahendra Siregar, during her visit to Jakarta in January 2020.