Kidnapped NZ pilot to be released, Papua rebel group says

A New Zealand pilot held hostage in a remote area of Indonesia’s Papua province is to be released, the rebel group holding him said on the one-year anniversary of his capture Wednesday.

Phillip Mehrtens was kidnapped by fighters from the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) on Feb.

7 last year after landing a Susi Air plane in the remote Nduga regency. Five local passengers were released and the plane was set alight. “In order to protect humanity and ensure human rights, the Management of the Central Headquarters of the National Command, the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) will return the pilot Philip Max Martherns [sic] to his family through the Jurisdiction of the Secretary General of the United Nations,” the TPNPB’s Maj.

Gen. Terianus Satto said in a statement. The statement did not give details on the procedure or when Mehrtens would be released. On Monday, the New Zealand government appealed for the separatists to free him “immediately and without harm.” “Let me be absolutely clear.

There can never be any justification for hostage taking,” Foreign Minister Winston Peters said, highlighting concerns over the amount of time Mehrtens had been held for. The TPNPB command holding him has long demanded that Indonesia and the international community recognize Papua’s independence in exchange for Mehrtens’ release.

However, a statement released by the TPNPB headquarters on Saturday appeared to reveal internal differences with the local command holding the New Zealander. “It is important to free this New Zealand pilot immediately,” the headquarters said, adding that the demand for recognition of independence was unrealistic.

“There is no history in this world that any country has ever been independent in exchange for… [a] hostage,” it said, adding that Mehrtens “should not be used as a bargaining position for high-level political negotiations.” It also expressed concerns over potential blame from the international community if the pilot died in its custody.

Mehrtens has appeared in various videos and photos released by his captors over the past year, including on Nov. 21 when the rebels again demanded Papua’s independence be recognized or else the pilot would be shot dead.

Rich in natural resources, Papua, in the east of the western half of the island of New Guinea, has been the scene of a low-intensity armed conflict between the central Indonesian state and secessionist movements since the region came under the control of Jakarta in 1969.