Captured pilot paraded on film by armed rebels
‘We’ll free him if we get independence’
CHILLING video has emerged of a New Zealand pilot who has been taken hostage by rebels.
Phillip Mehrtens, who works for Indonesian firm Susi Air, was kidnapped last week by fighters in the Papua region.
The group stormed the father of one’s plane shortly after it landed in Paro in the remote Nduga province last Tuesday.
The separatist rebels from the West Papua Liberation Army, the armed wing of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua, seized Mr Mehrtens before setting fire to his aircraft on the runway.
Video has since showed the pilot standing in a forest surrounded by fighters armed with rifles, spears, and bows and arrows.
‘I will remain captive for my life’
Rebel leader Egianus Kogoya said Mr Mehrtens, from Christchurch, will not be released until the Papua region is made independent from Indonesia. But the government has stood firm and said it will ‘forever remain a legitimate part’ of Indonesia.
Mr Mehrtens landed with five people on board and was scheduled to pick up 15 construction workers who had been building a health centre nearby. The passengers were released because they are native Papuans, the group said.
A spokesman shared videos and photos on Tuesday that showed gunmen, led by Kogoya, setting fire to the plane.
Sitting in the cockpit, the leader said he took the pilot hostage as part of their struggle ‘to free Papua’ from Indonesia. In a third video, Mr Mehrtens was ordered to say: ‘The Papuan military that has taken me captive to fight for Papuan independence, they ask for the Indonesian military to go home to Indonesia and if not, I will remain captive for my life.’
Kogoya said in the video: ‘He will be safe with me as long as Indonesia does not use its arms, either from the air or on the ground.’
Papua was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 after a UNsponsored ballot widely seen as a sham. A low-level insurgency has risen in the mineral-rich region, which is divided into two provinces, Papua and West Papua.
Indonesian security minister Mohammad Mahfud said the government was making every effort to persuade the rebels to release Mr Mehrtens.
‘Taking civilians hostage for any reason is unacceptable,’ he said on Tuesday. He added that persuasion was the best way to ensure Mr Mehrtens’ safety but ‘the government does not rule out other efforts’.
New Zealand’s foreign office said it was aware of the footage but would not comment further.
In July, the Liberation Army killed ten traders in the Nduga region, claiming they were spies for the Indonesian government.