Separatist rebels release New Zealand pilot after 19 months of captivity in Indonesia's Papua region

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A New Zealand pilot held hostage for more than a year in the restive Papua region was freed by separatist rebels, Indonesian authorities said Saturday.

Phillip Mark Mehrtens, a 38-year-old pilot from Christchurch, was working for Indonesian aviation company Susi Air when he was abducted by rebels from a remote airport on Feb. 7, 2023.

He was handed over early Saturday to the Cartenz Peace Taskforce, the joint security force set up by the Indonesian government to deal with separatist groups in Papua, after he was allowed to walk free, said the taskforce spokesperson Bayu Suseno.

“We managed to pick him up in good health” in the Yuguru village of Nduga district, Suseno said, adding that Mehrtens was flown to the mining town Timika for further health checks, including psychological examination.

Rebels have used violence to try to achieve independence as the security situation deteriorates in Indonesia’s easternmost region of Papua, a former Dutch colony in the western part of New Guinea that is ethnically and culturally distinct from much of Indonesia.

Papua was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 under a United Nations-sponsored ballot that was widely seen as a sham. Since then, a low-level insurgency has simmered in the region. Conflict spiked in the past year, with dozens of rebels, security forces and civilians killed.

Egianus Kogoya, a regional commander in the Free Papua Movement, initially said the rebels would not release Mehrtens unless Indonesia’s government allows Papua to become a sovereign country.

Then on Tuesday, leaders of the West Papua Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement known as TPNPB, issued a proposal for freeing Mehrtens that outlined terms including news media involvement in his release.

Suseno said that Mehrtens’ release was the result of hard work from a small task force team that had been communicating with the separatists led by Kogoya through the local church and community leaders, as well as youth figures.

“This is incredibly good news,” said Suseno in a video statement. “Effort to free the pilot by soft approach resulted in a hostage release without any casualties both from security forces, civilians or the pilot himself.”

New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters confirmed Mehrtens’ release after 592 days in captivity.

“We are pleased and relieved to confirm that Phillip Mehrtens is safe and well and has been able to talk with his family,” Peters said in a written statement Saturday. “This news must be an enormous relief for his friends and loved ones.”

Peters said a wide range of New Zealand government agencies had been working with Indonesian authorities and others to secure the release for the past 19 1/2 months. Officials were also supporting Mehrtens’ family, Peters said.

Many news outlets showed “cooperation and restraint” in reporting the story, he added.

“The case has taken a toll on the Mehrtens family, who have asked for privacy,” Peters said. “We ask media outlets to respect their wishes and therefore we have no further comment at this stage.”

New Zealand news outlets reported during Mehrtens’ captivity that he was one of a number of expatriate pilots employed by Susi Air and in recent years lived in Bali with his family.

“We’ve got him free,” Peters told reporters Saturday in Auckland, New Zealand. The development was an “enormous relief," he said.

Mehrtens was in Timika, Papua, Peters said, but would travel to the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, “very, very soon to be reunited with his family.”

Peters had not spoken to Mehrtens since his release. The news was “one of the better stories I’ve had” in his 45 years as a lawmaker, the three-time foreign minister added.

He declined to give details about how the pilot was freed. It was a “tricky” environment and building trust had been the most difficult aspect, Peters said.

“It was quite nerve-wracking, holding our nerve and not getting too carried away, not doing anything that might imperil the chances,” he said. “Because there was always a concern of ours that we might not succeed.”

Indonesia President Joko Widodo congratulated the military and police who helped free the pilot by prioritizing persuasion and safety.

“This was through a very long negotiation process and our patience not to do it repressively," Widodo said.

In April 2023, armed separatists attacked Indonesian troops who were deployed to rescue Mehrtens, killing at least six soldiers.

In August, gunmen stormed a helicopter and killed its New Zealand pilot, Glen Malcolm Conning, after it landed in Alama, a remote village in the Mimika district of Central Papua province. No one has claimed responsibility for that attack, and the rebels and Indonesian authorities have blamed each other.

In 1996, the Free Papua Movement abducted 26 members of a World Wildlife Fund research mission in Mapenduma. Two kidnapped Indonesians were killed by their abductors. The remaining hostages were freed within five months.

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Graham-McLay reported from Wellington, New Zealand.

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This story has been updated with the correct spelling of the pilot's first name. It's Phillip, not Philip.