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Papuan armed group releases video, photos of New Zealand pilot Mehrtens
The miltant wing of the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM) has sent the Post videos and photos of a man it has identified as New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens, whom the group had taken hostage last Tuesday.
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In this undated photo sent to ‘The Jakarta Post’ by the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), the militant wing of the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM), a man who the TPNPB has identified as New Zealand national Phillip Mehrtens (fourth left, in denim jacket) stands surrounded by a group of men armed with rifles, spears and bows and arrows. (Courtesy of TPNPB/-)
A
n armed group in Papua province has released video footage and photographs of a man it has identified as the New Zealand pilot it took hostage last week, dismissing claims made by the Indonesian Military (TNI) that the documentation was old footage, while the TNI said its rescue operation was continuing apace.
Phillip Mehrtens, a pilot from Christchurch working for Indonesia’s frontier airliner Susi Air, was reportedly abducted on Feb. 7 by a group from the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), the militant wing of the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM).
The group took over the aircraft Mehrtens was flying and set it alight shortly after it landed on an airstrip in Paro, a district in the remote and mountainous regency of Nduga.
The plane was scheduled to pick up construction workers building a Puskesmas (community health center) in Paro when a local rebel group led by Egianus Kogoya stormed the aircraft, Nduga acting regent Namia Gwijangge said a day after the incident.
The rebels had released the five passengers on the aircraft because they were all indigenous Papuans, TPNPB spokesperson Sebby Sambom said.
Sambom sent video footage and photos to The Jakarta Post showing a group of armed men setting fire to the plane as it was parked on the airstrip.
In the footage, Egianus is seen sitting in the airplane’s cockpit as he says the group had taken the pilot hostage as part of its struggle “to free Papua” from Indonesia.
