The armed faction of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) in the Indonesian-ruled West Papua region have proposed the terms of release for the New Zealand pilot taken hostage almost 18 months ago.
The group kidnapped Phillip Merhtens, a 38-year-old pilot working for the Indonesian internal feeder airline Susi Air, in February last year after he landed a small commercial plane in a remote, mountainous area.
The group has tried to use Mehrtens to broker independence from Indonesia.
It is now asking the New Zealand government, including the police and army, to escort the pilot and for local and international journalists to be involved in the release process.
The TPNPB have warned that military attacks in recent days to rescue Merhtens could instead threaten his safety.
The independence fighters in the 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. The rebels then issued the 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.
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, the TPNPB 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.
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. Conflict has spiked in the past year.