Don Flassy attended the conference as part of the Papuan pro independence movement. He says nothing less than independence will satisfy the people of Papua.

"That's right, all people want to be like that," said Flassy. "You want to say, okay, this land of God, you want to stay, to be here, okay. You have to stay and to obey the rule, our rule here."

Djoko Suyanto, the Indonesian coordinating minister for political, legal, and security affairs, was the highest ranking government official to attend the conference. His spokesman Bambang Sulistyo says the government rejects any call for international involvement, dismisses the need for negotiations and says it will focus on making the current special autonomy status work more effectively.

He says the government sees the problem as a social, welfare and to a degree a political issue, and is putting together an accelerated development approach to solve these problems.

Action urged

The International Crisis Group report says a draft decree of this accelerated development unit has been lingering on the Cabinet Secretary's desk for the last three months. It urged swift action to deal with the underlying economic issues.

Widjojo is not yet discouraged by the lack of progress. He says peace negotiations require building trust over time to get both sides to move away from hard-line positions.

"If you learn from for example Aceh peace process, in the beginning the suggestion was almost the same, that the Free Aceh Movement also talk about independence," Widjojo added. "And it takes more pre-talk, you know, to open the possibility of compromises."