Separatist rebels say Indonesian army attacks threaten the safety of kidnapped New Zealand pilot

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Separatist rebels in Indonesia’s restive Papua region warned Friday that increased Indonesian military attacks in recent days to rescue a New Zealand pilot who was taken hostage over a year ago could instead threaten his safety.

Independence fighters led by Egianus Kogoya, a regional commander in the Free Papua Movement, stormed a single-engine plane on a small runway in Paro and abducted Philip Mark Mehrtens on Feb. 7, 2023. The pilot from Christchurch was working for Indonesian aviation company Susi Air.

His abduction reflected the deteriorating security situation 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.

Kogoya initially said the rebels would not release Mehrtens unless Indonesia’s government allows Papua to become a sovereign country.

Despite promises from other leaders of the West Papua Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement, known as TPNPB, that they would let Mehrtens go, the pilot is still being held.

The rebels issued a proposal on Tuesday for freeing Mehrtens that outlined terms including news media involvement in his release.

“The Indonesian Government appears to be ignoring the TPNPB Proposal for the release of the Susi Air Pilot from New Zealand,” rebel spokesperson Sabby Sambom said in a statement Friday. “Therefore, the NZ Government must be serious and urge their friendly country, Indonesia, to stop the Military operations during the process, because it endangers the life of the New Zealand Pilot Philip Mark Mehrtens.”

Sambom said the Indonesian government has deployed more troops in Nduga, a regency in Papua Mountains province known as a rebel hotbed, and launched airstrikes with helicopters since Monday on the TPNPB headquarters in Alguru village, where the pilot is believed to be held.

A spokesperson for New Zealand’s foreign affairs ministry said Friday that officials were aware of the rebels' proposal, and that New Zealand would continue to work closely with all parties for Mehrtens’ release and would not discuss the details of its efforts publicly.

In another statement on Thursday, Sambom said Indonesian soldiers with tanks were on their way from neighboring Wamena district to Alguru to rescue the pilot.

The Cartenz Peace Taskforce, the joint security force set up by the Indonesian government to deal with separatist groups in Papua, could not immediately be reached for comment on the rebels’ statements.

In April, armed separatists attacked Indonesian troops who were deployed to rescue Mehrtens. The group sent a letter the next month to Indonesian President Joko Widodo. Sambom said they received a response indicating that Widodo would negotiate with the TPNPB, but there was no further communication.

Indonesian authorities have said they are making efforts to free Mehrtens “by prioritizing persuasive aspects and approaches.”

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.

Papua was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 after a U.N.-sponsored ballot that was widely seen as a sham. Since then, a low-level insurgency has simmered in the region, which was divided into five provinces last year to boost development in Indonesia’s poorest region. Conflict has spiked in the past year, with dozens of rebels, security forces and civilians killed.

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Associated Press writer Charlotte Graham-McLay in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed to this report.