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View all search resultsNegotiation still the best policy
The government can also seek assistance from credible organizations like the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to mediate a dialog with the armed group if the issue of trust is all that keeps the negotiation from positive results.
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A
fter more than three weeks, efforts to release Susi Air pilot Phillip Mark Mehrtens from members of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement (OPM), have so far borne no fruits. The faster the drama ends the better for everyone, but the fact that the negotiations with the group have hardly seen a breakthrough only shows how tough the process is.
For the government, the hostage-taking is testing its endurance in dealing with the rebels, in which any miscalculation will put the life of the New Zealand national at stake. The Indonesian Military’s (TNI) option to put any use of force on hold is therefore the best policy, regardless of chief security minister Mahfud MD’s claim that security troops have located, or perhaps encircled, the group. In fact, Wellington has asked Jakarta to refrain from violence in the operation to free its citizen.
On the other hand, the pilot’s captors have continued to offer a deal that the Indonesian government cannot afford to accept. Mahfud said the armed group had asked for weapons and ammunition in exchange for Mehrtens’ release, after previously demanding the withdrawal of TNI troops from Papua and Jakarta’s recognition of Papuan independence.
Mahfud said the government was preparing a strategy to rescue the pilot from captivity, taking into account his safety. The foreigner is reportedly in good health, according to Mahfud.
The armed rebels, led by Egianus Kogoya, have been holding Mehrtens after burning his aircraft upon landing at the airport in the remote district of Paro, Nduga regency in the newly formed province of Papua Highlands on Feb. 7. The group released the plane’s five passengers, including a baby.
Back in 1996, the group held captive 26 Indonesian and foreign researchers in Mapenduma district, also in Nduga. Some of the hostages were held for 130 days, until the government commissioned the Army’s elite unit to launch a military operation. Two Indonesian researchers were killed in the rescue mission.
Indonesia has several times resorted to a military operation to release hostages, most notably the deployment of Army’s commandos to rescue Garuda Indonesia passengers in Don Mueang Airport in Bangkok in March 1981. The Garuda plane had been hijacked by a Muslim extremist group called Komando Jihad on its way from Jakarta to Medan. All the hijackers and the pilot were killed, while all passengers left the aircraft safely.
