Craig Skehan, Nauru – A senior member of the Irian Jayan independence movement who slipped into Nauru for the annual gathering of Pacific island leaders despite an official ban, made an impassioned plea for regional support before being deported.

Mr Dirk Kereway, first secretary of the Free Papua Movement (OPM), called on Australia's Prime Minister to soften the country's blanket opposition to independence and support negotiations to avoid spiralling violence.

Last week Nauru's President Rene Harris said independence activists from Irian Jaya, also known as West Papua, would not be allowed to attend the 16 nation Pacific Islands Forum because of factional arguments over representation. Mr Kereway said yesterday that he had come from The Netherlands, where he has lived as a political exile since the 1960s, and it had been too late to turn around and go home.

His passport was taken when he arrived on an Air Nauru flight on Monday, and he was ordered on to a flight to Brisbane on the same airline yesterday afternoon.

But Mr Kereway was able to meet behind the scenes with senior officials of some of the delegates to the forum, which last year called for political dialogue on the future of Irian Jaya without openly supporting the secessionist cause.

Mr Howard attended that meeting. There has been speculation here that one of the reasons he pulled out at short notice this year was due to heightened sensitivity over the issue in Indonesia.

Mr Howard, who will be represented by the Minister for Defence, Mr Reith, told President Megawati Sukarnoputri this week that Australia supported Indonesia's territorial integrity. "I think that Prime Minister Howard is putting a knife into the struggle – people are hurt," Mr Kereway said.

The Indonesian military had been "killing people" since it took control of the western half of the island of New Guinea in the 1960s, he said. "The forum needs to include the OPM when they want to talk about the Papuan cause. If they keep OPM out they have no right to talk about the West Papuans as if they were objects like cars; we are human beings."

Mr Kereway complained that another relatively new West Papuan group, the Papua Council, were "puppets" who had been backed by senior elements in Indonesia, including former president Abdurrahman Wahid. Jakarta's aim was to achieve a shift in West Papuan aspirations from independence to greater autonomy, he said.

Australia is behind a push for the forum this year to carry a resolution that encourages greater autonomy for Irian Jaya as a province of Indonesia rather than it seceding. Indonesia is for the first time sending a delegation to hold a dialogue session in Nauru with the island countries, ranging from PNG and Fiji to the tiny nation of Tuvalu.Mr Kereway warned that neglect could lead to a repeat of the violence in East Timor: "Australia and the Pacific Islands Forum should be helping to see there is a peaceful solution before the problem becomes too big".