Papua split final, official says

JAKARTA: The government will not review its decision to create a new West Irian Jaya province, a top official said on Wednesday.

"The decision is final following the issuance of a home ministry decree on the appointment of the acting governor of the province," the home ministry's secretary-general, Siti Nurbaya, said after a seminar.

She said an administrative court's ruling that urged the government to cancel the appointment of the governor, Abraham O. Atururi, was not legally binding because the government had appealed the verdict.

The court ruled in June that Presidential Decree No. 213/2003 appointing an acting governor of West Irian Jaya was contrary to a 2001 law on special autonomy for Papua. --Antara