Local government help<\/strong>
\nTPNPB also claimed to have captured and held hostage pilot Mehrtens.<\/p>\nFakhiri hoped that communication could be established between the negotiation team and Kogoya\u2019s group so that Mehrtens could be released immediately.<\/p>\n
He also hopes that the involvement of the Nduga Regency local government in the search for Philip Mark Mehrtens would be “fruitful”.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe asked for help from the Nduga Regent and his people because they know the Nduga area best. They are ready to help, and there are also lawmakers who joined the team to negotiate with the TPNPB,\u201d Inspector Fakhiri said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Susi Air operations director Melinasary said that the burning of the aircraft and the hostage taking of Philip Mark Mehrtens would not force the airline to withdraw from Papua.<\/p>\n
She said Susi Air had been assisting development in Papua since 2006, pioneering flights and providing health assistance and medicines for the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith this incident, we will not stop flying in the Papua region. But please give us protection,\u201d Melinasary said.<\/p>\n
Melinasary added that Susi Air would provide support in the search for pilot Mehrtens.<\/p>\n
Logistics help<\/strong>
\n\u201cWe have provided flights for the search process and logistical assistance in the form of food in the search for our pilot,\u201d she said.<\/p>\nOn Tuesday, TPNPB spokesman Sebby Sambom released photos and videos of the Susi Air plane burning.<\/p>\n
Sambom also released a video showing Philip Mehrtens with TPNPB Ndugama leader Egianus Kogoya.<\/p>\n
\u201cTPNPB has officially released photos and videos with the New Zealand pilot, and the pilot is in good health,\u201d said Sambom<\/p>\n
He also said that the pilot was a guarantee of political negotiations between TPNPB and Indonesia.<\/p>\n
In the video circulating, Philip Mehrtens stood among TPNPB members and stated that Indonesia must recognise Papua\u2019s independence.<\/p>\n
Also in the video, Egianus Kogoya said his party would release the pilot if Papua was recognised as a free nation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndonesia must admit that Papua is independent. We Papuans have long been independent,\u201d Kogoya said.<\/p>\n
Republished from Jubi News with permission<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jubi News in Jayapura An indigenous Papuan negotiation team has traversed rugged highlands forests in the Indonesian-ruled Melanesian province in search of the New Zealand pilot Philip Mehrtens, who was taken hostage by rebels last week. The crisis over the captive pilot held by the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) led by Egianus Kogoya<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":400,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1719,5,53887,37684,6,7,207,57473,357,10,345,37160,57162,12,29961,13,14,57167,1743,1,19,20,299],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996643"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/400"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=996643"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":997490,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/996643\/revisions\/997490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=996643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=996643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=996643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}