The Green Party is calling on the Government to abandon plans to strengthen ties with Indonesia's military.
The Greens say Indonesia is carrying out acts of torture on the people of West Papua but the Government is looking to re-establish high level meetings and training exercises.
New Zealand and Indonesia were on opposite sides of the conflict in Timor Leste and the Greens say Indonesia is a military with blood on its hands.
"It seems that the New Zealand Government is so concerned to get in the good books of the Indonesian government that it's willing to overlook the massive human rights violations in West Papua," Green Party MP Keith Locke said.
New Zealand severed defence ties with Indonesia in 1999 in protest against the violent criminal actions of Indon soldiers in Timor Leste but the ban was lifted in 2006.
Papers show New Zealand has been working to reinstate high level talks and military training opportunities.
"We're at the beginning of this journey, we would expect Indonesia to also build its ability to respect human rights," Defence Minister Wayne Mapp said.
But those at the centre of the violence says New Zealand's position is disappointing.
"They will put the human dignity under the ground...the West Papuan will be killed and will be extinct," West Papuan resident Paula Makabory said.
But Mapp says Indonesia is the closest large Asian nation to New Zealand and "it's appropriate we have a relationship".
Locke has also condemned Foreign Minister Murray McCully's decision to boycott a UN anti-racism meeting which opens in New York this week.
McCully says New Zealand did not agree with the draft text of the conference declaration and that 'the commemoration of the 2001 Durban Declaration could re-open the offensive and anti-Semitic debates which undermined the original World Conference.'
But Locke said joining the boycott will blacken New Zealand's good name among UN member nations.
Read more>>http://tvnz.co.nz/politics-news/govt
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