A pro-independence militant West Papuan group says it will release a New Zealand pilot it has held hostage for a year via the United Nations, reports Reuters.
It was unclear when the 38-year-old pilot, Philip Mehrtens, who was kidnapped exactly a year ago yesterday when he landed a small commercial plane in a rugged mountainous area, would be released.
Terianus Satto of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), one of several groups fighting for Papua’s independence from Indonesia, said in a statement that Mehrtens would be released to “protect humanity and . . . human rights”.
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“TPNPB will return the pilot Philip Max Martherns [sic] to his family through the jurisdiction of the Secretary-General of the United Nations,” he said.
A spokesperson for Foreign Minister Winston Peters said: “New Zealand continues to work with all parties on securing Mr Mehrtens’ safe release. The Minister of Foreign Affairs has no further comment at this time.”
A low-level but increasingly deadly struggle for independence has been waged in the resource-rich western half of the island of Papua since it was brought under Indonesian control in a vote overseen by the United Nations in 1969 but rejected as flawed by most West Papuans.
Papuans are indigenous Melanesians like their neigbouring islanders in the independent state of Papua New Guinea.
Negotiations over pilot
Indonesia’s government and military, which have struggled against the pro-independence movement, have said they were in negotiations to free the pilot.
However, Asia Pacific Report says West Papuan activists are wary of negotiations with Indonesian authorities.
A statement last week by another faction seeking independence, the government of the “Federal Republic of West Papua”, declared that Indonesian authorities had been resisting diplomatic moves to free the pilot and negotiations had reached a “stalemate”.
The statement signed by the self-styled president Yoab Syatfle said: “The people of West Papua are of Pacific race and have closer affinity and share common customs and traditions with the people of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji, New Caledonia, Australia, Cook Islands, Federal States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Republic of Marshall Islands, Samoa, Tonga and Tuvalu.”
Seeking negotiations for an independent future for West Papua, Syatfle said that since Mehrtens had been kidnapped, “60 innocent people had been killed, Indonesia had banned and closed access from air and land, closed 14 districts, closed 33 villages, and closed 39 churches [in the Nduga Regency].”
Indigenous people had had to move to other safe places and the Indonesian military controlled everything, the statement said.
“The Indonesian military never reached the location of the kidnappers [in a year] because it was a Papuan stronghold and because of the challenges of the mountains.”
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
