Papua province independence factions meet in Vanuatu

(Radio Australia-ABC) The leaders of the different pro-independence factions in the Indonesian province of Papua are meeting in the Vanuatu capital, Port Vila.Pacific Correspondent Campbell Cooney reports that organisers are describing this week's meeting as the most important summit of pro independence leaders from Papua Province in over 40 years. The province was annexed by Indonesia in the early 1960s. Since then Indonesia's been locked in an independence struggle with the native Melanesian people, a fight which supporters claim has left over 100,000 people dead. This week in Vanuatu many of the struggle's leaders are meeting for the first time to try and resolve the differences which have stopped them putting forward a united front before now. Vanuatu has long been a refuge for pro-independence supporters from the region, but its government has distanced itself from this summit.