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Separatist rebels in Indonesia’s restive Papua province have launched pictures and movies of a person they stated is the pilot from New Zealand they took hostage final week.
Phillip Mark Mehrtens of Christchurch, a pilot for Indonesian aviation firm Susi Air, was kidnapped by independence fighters from the West Papua Liberation Military, the armed wing of the Free Papua Motion, who stormed his single-engine aircraft shortly after it landed on a small runway in Paro in distant Nduga district.
The aircraft, carrying 5 passengers, was scheduled to choose up 15 building staff who had been constructing a well being middle in Paro after a bunch of separatist rebels led by Egianus Kogoya threatened to kill them, stated Nduga district chief Namia Gwijangge.
“Our plan to evacuate the employees angered the rebels, who responded by setting hearth to the aircraft and seizing the pilot,” stated Gwijangge, who was one of many passengers.
“We deeply remorse this incident.”
The rebels launched all 5 passengers as a result of they’re indigenous Papuans, insurgent spokesperson Sebby Sambom stated earlier.
Sambom despatched movies and pictures to The Related Press on Tuesday that confirmed a bunch of gunmen led by Kogoya setting hearth to the aircraft on the runway. Sitting within the aircraft’s cockpit, Kogoya stated he took the pilot hostage as a part of their wrestle “to free Papua” from Indonesia.
One other video confirmed a person recognized as Mehrtens standing in a forest surrounded by a bunch of individuals armed with rifles, spears and bows and arrows. In a 3rd video, the person was ordered by the rebels to say, “Indonesia should acknowledge Papua is impartial.”
“I took him hostage for Papuan independence, not for meals or drinks,” Kogoya stated within the video with the person standing subsequent to him.
“He will likely be secure with me so long as Indonesia doesn’t use its arms, both from the air or on the bottom.”
The coordinating minister for Political, Safety and Authorized Affairs, Mohammad Mahfud, stated the federal government is making each effort to steer the rebels to launch Mehrtens “as a result of the precedence is the protection of the hostage.”
“Taking civilians hostage for any purpose is unacceptable,” Mahfud stated in a video assertion late Tuesday. He stated persuasion is the most effective technique to make sure hostage security, however “the federal government doesn’t rule out different efforts”.
He emphasised the federal government’s view that Papua is a part of Indonesia.
“Papua will ceaselessly stay a official a part of the unitary state of the Republic of Indonesia,” Mahfud stated.
Papua police chief Mathius Fakhiri informed reporters in Jayapura, the provincial capital, that they’re searching for to acquire the pilot’s freedom by involving a number of group leaders, together with tribal and church figures, to construct communication and negotiate with the rebels.
Conflicts between indigenous Papuans and Indonesian safety forces are frequent within the impoverished Papua area, a former Dutch colony within the western a part of New Guinea that’s ethnically and culturally distinct from a lot of Indonesia. Papua was integrated into Indonesia in 1969 after a United Nations-sponsored poll that was extensively seen as a sham. Since then, a low-level insurgency has simmered within the mineral-rich area.
– AAP
