JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A New Zealand pilot taken hostage For more than a year, the restive region of Papua in Indonesia was liberated Saturday by separatist rebels.
Phillip Mark Mehrtens, a 38-year-old pilot from Christchurch, was working for Indonesian airline Susi Air when he was kidnapped by rebels from a remote airport on February 7, 2023.
New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens, center, who was held hostage for more than a year in the restive region of Papua, speaks to the media during a news conference after his release, in Timika, Papua province, Indonesia, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (AP Photo/Endy Langobelen)
“Today I finally managed to get out of the water. I am very happy to be back home with my family soon,” Mehrtens told reporters at a news conference in the mining town of Timika. “Thank you to everyone who helped me get out safely.”
Television news earlier showed an emaciated, long-haired Mehrtens, dressed in a dark green shirt and black shorts, sitting in a room surrounded by police and local officials. He sobbed as he spoke to his family via video, and a police officer tried to calm him by patting his back. He was later flown to Jakarta to be reunited with his family.
The rebels have resorted to violence in a bid to gain independence as the security situation deteriorates in Indonesia’s easternmost region of Papua, a former Dutch colony in western New Guinea that is ethnically and culturally distinct from much of Indonesia.
FILE – Police guard a hospital where workers threatened by Papuan rebels were brought for medical examinations in Mimika, Papua province, Indonesia, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Saldi Hermanto, File)
Papua was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 after a United Nations-sponsored referendum that was widely seen as a farce. A low-level insurgency has simmered ever since. The conflict escalated last year, with dozens of rebels, security forces and civilians killed.
Egianus Kogoya, a regional commander of the Free Papua Movement, initially said the rebels would not release Mehrtens unless the Indonesian government allowed Papua to become a sovereign country.
On Tuesday, leaders of the West Papua Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement known as TPNPB, released a proposal for Mehrtens’ release that outlined conditions for his release, including the involvement of the media in his release.
A spokesman for the task force, Bayu Suseno, said Mehrtens’ release was the result of the hard work of a small team from the task force that communicated with the Kogoya-led separatists through local church and community leaders as well as youth figures.
In this photo released by the Indonesian security forces’ Peacekeeping Task Force Cartenz (Satgas Damai Cartenz), New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens, left, who was held hostage for more than a year in the restive Papua region, sits with police officers after his release, in Timika, Papua province, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (Satgas Damai Cartenz via AP)
“This is excellent news,” Suseno said. “The efforts to free the pilot through a soft approach allowed the hostage to be freed without any casualties, neither among the security forces, nor among civilians, nor among the pilot himself.”
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said a wide range of government agencies had been working with Indonesian authorities and others to secure Mehrtens’ release for the past 19-and-a-half months. The authorities were also supporting Mehrtens’ family, Peters added.
Many media outlets have been “cooperative and restrained” in reporting the case, he added. “The case has had an impact on the Mehrtens family, who have asked for their privacy,” Peters said.
New Zealand media reported during Mehrtens’ captivity that he was one of several expatriate pilots employed by Susi Air and had been living in Bali with his family in recent years.
Peters has not spoken to Mehrtens since his release. This news is “one of the best I have had” in 45 years of parliamentary office, added the three-time foreign minister.
He declined to give details about how the pilot was released. It was a “delicate” environment and building trust was the most difficult aspect, Peters said.
“It was quite nerve-wracking, we had to keep our cool and not get too carried away, not do anything that would jeopardize our chances,” he said. “Because we were always afraid of not succeeding.”
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters speaks during an interview with The Associated Press in his parliamentary office in the capital, Wellington, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Tantrum)
Indonesian President Joko Widodo praised the military and police for prioritizing persuasion and security.
“This was the result of a very long negotiation process and our patience not to act in a repressive manner,” Widodo said.
Mehrtens arrived at Halim Perdanakusumah Air Base in Jakarta shortly before midnight on Saturday. He was escorted off the plane by police and military personnel and greeted on the tarmac by Indonesian officials and New Zealand diplomats.
Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Hadi Tjahjanto told a news conference after the arrival that the Indonesian government had formally handed over Mehrtens to New Zealand Ambassador to Jakarta Kevin Burnett, who will oversee his security.
He stressed that the separatist rebels had not demanded anything in exchange for Mehrtens’ release and that the safety of the hostages was a top priority.
In April 2023, Armed separatists attacked Indonesian troops who were deployed to rescue Mehrtens, killing at least six soldiers.
In August, armed men stormed a helicopter and killed its New Zealand pilotGlen Malcolm Conning after landing in Alama, a remote village in Mimika district, Central Papua province. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, and rebels and Indonesian authorities have blamed each other.
In 1996, the Free Papua Movement abducted 26 members of a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) research mission to Mapenduma. Two kidnapped Indonesians were killed by their captors. The other hostages were released five months later.
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Graham-McLay reported from Wellington, New Zealand.
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This story corrects the spelling of the pilot’s first name.
