Papuan separatists have told Crikey a New Zealand pilot was taken hostage as a representative of the Pacific Nations family.

Sian Powell

Feb 17, 2023

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NZ pilot Philip Mehrtens and Papuan separatist fighters (Image: Supplied)

The New Zealand pilot kidnapped by independence fighters in Indonesia’s restive easternmost province of Papua is now living in the jungle with the separatist fighters and eating what they eat, a separatist has told Crikey. 

Independence fighters from the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) seized Susi Air’s small propeller plane when it landed at an airport in the mountainous district of Nduga last week. The separatists, from the armed wing of the Free Papua Organisation (OPM), set the plane on fire and captured the pilot, Philip Mehrtens, who was then spirited away to a hiding place somewhere in the dense jungle of the area. 

A video sent to Crikey from Papuan separatists, featuring the Susi Air plane they set on fire (Source: Supplied)

“He stays in the jungle, he eats in the jungle,” said the army’s spokesman Sebby Sambom, adding that many Western missionaries had been able to adjust to Papuan food in the past. 

“If the TPNPB troops eat potatoes, the pilot also eats potatoes.”

Mehrtens can easily communicate with his captors, Sambom said: “This New Zealand pilot can speak Indonesian and for him this action is normal.”

TPNPB independence fighters want to negotiate with the governments of the US, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, Sambom told Crikey in a WhatsApp voice message recorded in Indonesian.

“We arrested that pilot depending on politics. We want to negotiate with the governments of New Zealand, the US, Australia, Europe and the people,” he said.

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He added that these nations had been sending weapons to Indonesia and training Indonesian police and military troops for decades, and that those Indonesian forces kill the people of West Papua. 

“We do not need to negotiate with the Indonesian army or the police,” Sambom said. “What is the goal of those military and police? They are the enemy, it’s not possible. We cannot speak with the army or the police, they are accountable to Jakarta.”

The TPNPB separatist fighters this week posted photos on Facebook and released videos showing Mehrtens in the jungle, surrounded by several men, a few armed with semi-automatic weapons and others with bows and arrows. 

In one video, an independence fighter is seen in the cockpit of the Susi Air plane before it was set alight.

In another video, Mehrtens is wearing what appears to be a “Free Papua” T-shirt and appears well and calm. He speaks first in Indonesian and then in English.

A video sent to Crikey from Papuan separatists, featuring Captain Philip Mehrtens and Papuan separatists (Source: Supplied)

“The Papuan military have taken me captive in their efforts to fight for Papuan independence,” he says. “They ask for the Indonesian military to go home, back to Indonesia. If not, I will remain captive or my life is threatened.” 

Sambom sent the videos and images to Crikey and said Mehrtens was not taken hostage as an enemy but as a representative of the Pacific Nations family, including New Zealand and West Papua. He claimed that 80% of Australians and New Zealanders support West Papua’s struggle for independence. 

Meanwhile, dozens of heavily armed and helmeted Indonesian police and military officers have arrived in the rugged hills of Nduga to search for Mehrtens, according to the Indonesian press.

Despite using often heavy-handed tactics, Indonesia’s large military forces have failed to stamp out elements of determined resistance in West Papua over the years, and Jakarta’s bid to subdue the province by shipping in large numbers of non-Indigenous Indonesians has bred entrenched resentment.

Indigenous Papuans are mostly Melanesian and Christian, unlike the racially different Muslim newcomers, many from Java and Madura, who now outnumber locals in many districts. 

West Papua has seen sporadic conflict for many decades. Most of Indonesia achieved independence when the Dutch colonisers departed soon after World War II. But West Papua, which abuts Papua New Guinea, remained Dutch until the early 1960s. After a struggle, authority for the province was transferred to Indonesia, which promised an “Act of Free Choice” — a UN-supervised ballot on independence. 

In 1969, just over 1000 Papuans selected by Jakarta voted to keep the province within Indonesia. The vote was accepted by much of the world, but it is disputed by many indigenous Papuans who continue to insist on independence. 

About the Author

Sian Powell

Contributor

Sian Powell has lived in Sydney, Jakarta, Bangkok and Hong Kong, where she has worked as a reporter, an editor and a foreign correspondent.

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  News Desk – Mimika Murder And Mutilation Trial 

17 February 2023

Jayapura, Jubi – Four soldiers of the Raider 20/Ima Jaya Keramo Infantry Brigade, who were defendants in the murder and mutilation of four Nduga residents in Mimika Regency, were sentenced differently by the Military Court III-19 Jayapura.

In the trial, the panel of judges chaired by Col. l Chk Rudy Dwi Prakamto sentenced First Pvt. Rahmat Amin Sese and First Pvt. Risky Oktav Mukiawan to life imprisonment, with an additional sentence of dismissal from the Army service.

Meanwhile, First Pvt. Robertus Putra Clinsman was sentenced to 20 years in prison and Chief Pvt. Pargo Rumbouw 15 years. Both were also dismissed from the Army service.

“The defendants Rahmat and Risky were sentenced to life imprisonment because they played more roles, both planning and mutilating. While the defendants Putra and Pargo were involved in the middle of the planning and were not involved in the mutilation even though they were at the scene,” chief judge Rudy said in Jayapura City on Wednesday, February 15, 2023.

Last year, in August, four civilians were found dead with their bodies already mutilated in Mimika on Friday, August 26, 2022. This case involved six TNI soldiers and four civilians, respectively Maj. Helmanto Fransiskus Dakhi, First Pvt. Rahmat Amin Sese, First Pvt. Risky Oktav Mukiawan, First Pvt. Robertus Putra Clinsman, and Chief Pvt. Pargo Rumbouw. The civilian perpetrators consist of Andre Pudjianto Lee or Jack, Dul Umam, Roy Marthen Howai, and Rafles.

Maj. Helmanto Fransiskus Dakhi is already sentenced to life imprisonment by the Surabaya Court Panel of Judges, and dismissed from the Army Service as of Tuesday. (*)

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News Desk – Book Launching 17 February 2023

Jayapura, Jubi – Head of the Campus Coalition for Papuan Democracy Marudut Hasugian said his team had conducted field research on politics of natural resource management and the livelihoods of indigenous peoples, especially Papuan women in changing situations. The research is conducted in Kendate Village (Jayapura Regency), Aiwat Village (Boven Digoel Regency) and Rayori Village (Supiori Regency).

The results of the research were written by Cenderawasih University lecturers Elvira Rumkabu, Apriani Anastasia Amenes, Asrida Elisabeth, and I Ngurah Suryawan, and published as books, namely “Hidden Villages Thriving: Livelihood Strategies and Change in Demenggong Bay”, “Seizing Control of Life: The Struggle of the Wambon People in Boven Digoel against Massive Investment”, and “Facing Vulnerability: The Livelihood Challenges of the Sowek People in Supiori”.

During his speech at the book launch held on Wednesday, February 15, 2023, Hasugian said the books highlighted the presence of investors who came to utilize natural resources but in reality, creating problems in the community.

“The community has been committed to upholding natural resources for generations through farming and hunting. Now they must do that in the midst of the rapid investment in the Land of Papua,” he said.

The indigenous communities are expected to provide input for the local government on natural resource management, including how to create policies that can protect the rights of indigenous peoples in Supiori, Boven Digoel, and Jayapura regencies.

The research has revealed various efforts of indigenous peoples to strategize in seizing control of their lives in the midst of various policies, investments, migrant influx of non-Papuan people to Papua, as well as exclusion of indigenous peoples and vulnerabilities that continue to emerge due to narrowing livelihood space and other ecological changes.

“We hope the government can provide protection and investors can take a stand to protect the community according to existing local wisdom,” said Hasugian.

Meanwhile, secretary of the Campus Coalition for Papuan Democracy Elvira Rumkabu said the findings of the study conducted by her party reinforced the critical reflections published by Benny Giay in his book “Let’s Take Control: Fighting for the Recovery of this Country”.

“In the book Giyai said that ‘changing ourselves to seize the future is very difficult … We [Papuans] need strength and energy. Therefore, there needs to be internal consolidation efforts in the Papuan community in order to regain control of their lives,” he said. (*)

Editorial board (The Jakarta Post) 

Jakarta   ●   Thu, February 16, 2023 

Alas Papua has yet again come under international scrutiny amid the latest chapter in the violence that the country’s easternmost territory has grappled with for decades. This time around the West Papua National Liberation Army (TNPB), an armed wing of the Free Papua Organization (OPM) rebel group, has taken hostage a pilot working for Susi Air, Phillip Mark Mehrtens of New Zealand, after burning his aircraft in Nduga regency last week. 

As security forces deploy to track down the armed group, the TNPB released on Tuesday photos and video, which appeared to show that the foreign pilot was alive and well. “He is safe with our boys in the field, and everything is okay. He’s staying with our friends and family at the […] headquarters. He has good skills, and we will look after him and he will train our soldiers how to fly an aircraft,” a spokesman for the group, Sebby Sambom, told RNZ Pacific. 

At one point in the video sent to the media, including The Jakarta Post, the pilot said the rebel group would keep him in captivity for the rest of his life unless Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel are withdrawn from Papua. Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Mahfud MD said the government was seeking every path to release Mehrtens. 

Mahfud asserted that the government would take a persuasive approach in dealing with the abductors, but would remain open to “other options”. A team comprising the Nduga regent and several members of the local legislative council have been dispatched to the outlying district of Paro to negotiate with the group for the pilot’s release, with the police expecting the mission to be accomplished sooner rather than later. 

But looking back at the way the government has dealt with the OPM, or popular dissent in general in Papua, there are reasons for us to worry about the endgame of this hostage taking. In 1996 the government entrusted the Army’s Special Forces (Kopassus), led by their commander at the time Brig. Gen. Prabowo Subianto, to launch a military operation to release 11 researchers, including four Britons and two Dutch, in Mapenduma district in the Jayawijaya highlands, now part of Nduga. Two of the hostages were killed in the operation, which marked a bloody end to a 130-day drama. 

To quell the low-intensity rebellion in Papua the government, except under then-president Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid who briefly served in 1999-2001, has consistently maintained a security approach, which is marked by the deployment of military and police.

With two military commands (Kodam) and an Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) brigade, plus military taskforces assigned along the borders with Papua New Guinea and a number of vital state facilities, such as a gold mine and gas refinery, the military deployment in Papua far exceeds that in other provinces. 

At the same time, the government has continued to force its will on the Papuans, as most recently evident in the formation of new provinces and regencies there without proper and meaningful consultation with local people. Unless this decades-long approach changes, conflict will continue to plague Papua and other hostage takings will recur and the cycle of violence will persist.

 Last November, without much fanfare the government reached an agreement in Geneva with the rebel groups on a humanitarian pause in Papua. But the deal, which aims to temporarily stop hostilities and violence in Papua, has not worked, which rights groups have blamed on a lack of transparency and a failure to involve all stakeholders. 

The negotiations to release the Susi Air pilot should serve as a precursor to another initiative toward a dialogue to end the ongoing violence in Papua and bring peace back to the land. 

One of the conditions for such dialogue to take place must be the government’s willingness to curtail its ego and listen to the grievances of the local people. For a long time Jakarta has opted to make compromises with the local political elites, which has meant that Papua remains mired in poverty despite the billions of dollars in special autonomy funds transferred to the territory. A genuine, dignified dialogue will free Papua from poverty and hence violence.

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