We will kill all foreigners, say Papua rebels after abducting pilot
REBEL fighters in remote Indonesia abducted a New Zealand pilot and warned they will begin tracking down and killing other foreigners from the US, Europe and Australia.
The pilot, identified by police as Captain Philip Mehrtens, was seized on Tuesday and his plane was set on fire after he landed a commercial charter flight at Paro Airport in the highlands of the Nduga Regency. Described as one of Susi Air’s “best pilots”, Mr Mehrtens was experienced at taking off from and landing on “dangerous pathways” with short and steep runways while dropping supplies in regions at the centre of an escalation of violence between the military, police and separatists.
The West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement seen by Reuters. Sebby Sambom, claiming to be a TPNPB spokesman, said the fighters would execute Mr Mehrtens if Western nations continued to support Indonesian security forces.
He called on Joko Widodo, the Indonesian president, “to sit together at the negotiation table” to discuss Papuan independence, adding that until then the group would “do it our way, namely taking hostages of foreigners or shooting an aeroplane or a helicopter”.
“Our new target are all foreigners: the US, EU, Australians and New Zealanders because they supported Indonesia to kill Papuans for 60 years,” Mr Sambom said. “Colonialism in Papua must be abolished.”
The fate of his five passengers, including a baby, remains unknown to the authorities who have dispatched police and military personnel to try to locate them.
“We cannot send many personnel there because Nduga is a difficult area to reach. We can only go there by plane,” said Ignatius Benny Adi Prabowo, a police spokesman in Papua province.
The resource-rich western region of the island was formerly a Dutch colony that was incorporated into Indonesia after a widely criticised United Nationsbacked referendum in 1969.
It has maintained a low-level battle for independence ever since, but the conflict has escalated since 2018, with pro-independence fighters mounting deadlier and more frequent attacks.
In September 2019, it was gripped by violent riots fuelled by renewed calls for self-rule and by anger over reports of racist slurs and tear gas used against Papuan students in the Indonesian city of Surabaya.
At least 59 people, more than half of them under the age of 25, were reportedly killed in the unrest.
New Zealand’s embassy in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, is leading the government’s response to the kidnapping. Chris Hipkins, the prime minister, said that consular support was being provided but declined to comment further on the details of the case.