Indonesian troops surround separatists holding NZ pilot
Staff Writers Reuters March 1, 2023 4:45PM
Security forces in Indonesia's restive Papua region have surrounded separatists holding captive a New Zealand pilot, but will exercise restraint while negotiations for his release continue, a top security official says.
Philip Mehrtens, a Susi Air pilot, was taken hostage by the West Papua National Liberation Army (TNPB) on February 7 after landing in the remote region of Nduga.
The rebels say they will not release Mehrtens, 37, unless Indonesia's government recognises the region's independence and withdraws its troops.
Chief security minister, Mahfud MD said security forces had found the location of the group holding the pilot but would refrain from actions that might endanger his life.
"Now, they are under siege and we already know their location. But we must be careful," Mahfud said, according to local media.
He did not elaborate on the location or what steps Indonesia might take to free the pilot.
Susi Air's founder and owner said on Wednesday 70 per cent of its flights in the region had been cancelled, apologising for the disruption of vital supplies to remote, mountainous areas.
"There has to be a big humanitarian impact. There are those who are sick and can't get medication ... and probably food supplies are dwindling," Susi Pudjiastuti told reporters.
Separatists have waged a low-level fight for independence since the resource-rich region, once governed by the Netherlands, was brought under Indonesian control following a United Nations-supervised vote in 1969.
Hostage-taking of foreigners has been rare and the conflict has escalated since 2018, with rebels mounting deadlier and more frequent attacks.
Indonesian military chief, Admiral Yudo Margono said operations were complicated by the presence of civilians in the area.
"It is not easy to catch this group as they are mingling with the locals. We will prioritise persuasive measures," he said in a statement.
Security forces previously said a "law enforcement operation" had been planned, but only as a last resort if negotiations failed.
The government has used prominent figures in Papua such as politicians, priests and local leaders to communicate with the hostage-takers.
1) Indonesia vows restraint as troops surround separatists holding NZ pilot
Reuters. 2 minute readMarch 1, 202312:43 AM GMT+11Last Updated 6 hours ago
FILE PHOTO-A man, identified as Philip Mehrtens, the New Zealand pilot who is said to be held hostage
by a pro-independence group, stands among the separatist fighters
in Indonesia's Papua region, in this undated picture released on February 14, 2023. The West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB)/Handout via REUTERS
JAKARTA, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Security forces in Indonesia's restive Papua region have surrounded separatists
holding
captive a New Zealand pilot, but will exercise restraint while negotiations for his release continue, a top security
official
said on Tuesday.
Philip Mehrtens, a Susi Air pilot, was taken hostage by the West Papua National Liberation Army (TNPB)
on Feb. 7 after landing in the remote region of Nduga.
The rebels say they will not release Mehrtens, 37, unless Indonesia's government recognises the region's
independence and withdraws its troops.
Chief security minister, Mahfud MD said security forces had found the location of the group holding the pilot but
would refrain from actions that might endanger his life.
"Now, they are under siege and we already know their location. But we must be careful," Mahfud said, according
to local media.
He did not elaborate on the location or what steps Indonesia might take to free the pilot.
Separatists have waged a low-level fight for independence since the resource-rich region, once governed by the
Netherlands, was brought under Indonesian control following a United Nations-supervised vote in 1969.
Hostage-taking of foreigners has been rare and the conflict has escalated since 2018, with rebels mounting
2) Three weeks held hostage, pilot Philip Mehrtens’ fate unclear
News Desk - Susi Air Pilot Hostage-Taking
28 February 2023
Jayapura, Jubi – It has been more than 20 days since Susi Air pilot Philip Mehrtens, a New Zealand national, was taken hostage by the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB). TPNPB has released videos and photos showing that he is with them. Efforts to free Philip continue to be made through negotiations and plans for military operations.
Last week, Coordinating Minister for Legal, Political, and Security Affairs Mahfud MD said the Indonesian Military (TNI) and Police were ready to carry out an operation to free Mehrtens. However, New Zealand requested that the operation be canceled because the main priority was the safety of Mehrtens. The liberation operation will reportedly be led by Korem 172/PWY commander Brig. Gen. JO Sembiring.
Mahfud added that the exact location of Mehrtens was already known.
“Papua is a legitimate part of Indonesia. Therefore, there is no negotiation about it and we will defend and eradicate anyone who wants to take any part of Indonesia,” Mahfud said at the time.
TPNPB claimed to have heard of Mehrtens’ liberation operation plan. They said they were ready to face the operation.
“Our troops are ready. Troops from Yambi, Puncak Jaya, Sinak, Gwijawage, Ilaga, and Lani Jaya have been in Paro since three weeks ago and they were ready to fight,” said TPNPB spokesman Sebby Sambom.
According to Sambom, TPNPB is very familiar with the terrain in Nduga. “Weapons and terrain are not a problem, the fighting spirit will determine our victory. We also urge the security forces not to target civilians to get information about TPNPB,” Sambom said.
TPNPB, Sambom continued, demanded Papuan independence as a condition for the release of Mehrtens in Nduga. They also asked Australia and New Zealand to stop exporting military equipment to Indonesia.
Ransom issue
Recently, Indonesian security forces made a statement that TPNPB asked for ransom and weapons for Mehrtens’ release. John Martinkus, an Australian freelance journalist who has been held hostage and knows about the conflict in Papua, said if there was a demand for money, it was unlikely to be paid.
Martinkus, who was taken hostage in Baghdad, said no one would pay ransom to the abductor, not the government nor the company where the hostage worked.
Looking at the video footage that circulated, Martinkus thought Mehrtens, who spoke Indonesian rather fluently, had identified with the motivation of his captors. Martinkus believed Mehrtens had shown some kind of connection or empathy that made Mehrtens less likely to be mistreated while increasing the likelihood that he would be released safely.
Martinkus, who was a journalist in Timor Leste before the country separated from Indonesia, said he knew very well how the Indonesian security forces operate. He believed they would have a modus operandi and act with violence rather than negotiation.
“When they attack a village, they destroy it. They burn houses and rape women. Since generations of officers have behaved like that in the past, I fear that they will do it again,” Martinkus says, recalling what he witnessed in Timor Leste.
What Martinkus said was confirmed by Sambom. According to Sambom, what Martinkus fears has already begun to happen. Statements by Indonesian security forces that TPNPB asked for ransom and weapons for Mehrtens’ release were an attempt to legitimize military action in an effort to free the New Zealand pilot.
“They said we asked for money and weapons to justify their attack. The Indonesian security forces are building opinions to justify their actions, which are not different from their actions to Mapenduma in Timor Leste,” Sambom said.
“The Indonesian security forces are lying. We never asked for ransom or weapons for Mehrtens’ release,” Sambom said.
Papuan Church Council calls for Philip Mehrtens release
The Papuan Church Council called on TPNPB to immediately release Philip Mehrtens. This hostage-taking, said Rev. Benny Giay, would take a toll on the psychology of his family.
If the pilot was released, Giai said, he was sure TPNPB would receive sympathy from the global community and the Indonesian people.
According to the Council, there must be a neutral mediator or negotiator trusted by both the TPNPB, the community, and the government to release the pilot. Otherwise, many victims will fall.
Giai himself was part of a negotiating team resolving a similar issue in Ilaga in 2010. At that time, Giai said, security guarantees were given directly by then Papua Police chief I Made Pastika, and everything went smoothly. (*)
By UCA News reporter Published: February 28, 2023 04:05 AM GMT
Catholic leaders say a thorough investigation is crucial to create a conducive atmosphere for talks in restive province
Catholic activists and human rights groups in Indonesia have demanded a thorough probe into a recent riot that claimed 12 lives in restive Papua province, where a separatist insurgency has been waged for decades.
"One has to find out why civilians can be treated in such an inhuman way by being shot, not through persuasive means," Father John Bunai from the Diocese of Jayapura, capital of Papua province, told UCA News on Feb. 27.
Father Bunai, a Jayapura diocese delegate for the Papua Peace Network, which promotes dialogue to resolve the ongoing conflict in Indonesia's easternmost province, said a thorough investigation was crucial for the creation of a conducive atmosphere for talks.
"It is not enough to remove the local police chief”
The police arrested the duo and claimed that the kidnapping was misinformation. However, angry residents attacked the police.
In the clashes, 10 Papuans died, and 20 others were injured, while two other migrants from the Batak tribe died after they were attacked by residents.
National police chief Listyo Sigit Prabowo dismissed the Jayawijaya police chief, Hesman Sotarduga Napitupulu, following the incident. Police arrested 13 people accused of instigating the riot.
Father Bunai said police had to explain clearly what happened on Feb. 23, and "it is not enough to remove the local police chief."
“What must be done is to find out why civilians were shot indiscriminately. Why do they [police officers] see Papuans as enemies?" he said.
He said the police's explanation was important so as not to create the impression that they were on the side of one community.
"Such efforts have only made the situation worse”
Indonesia's security forces have long been accused of committing atrocities against Papuan civilians during the decades-long insurgency in the mineral-rich province.
Father Alexandro Rangga from Franciscans’ Secretariat for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation, criticized the way the authorities handled the incident, as well as the deployment of additional troops.
"Those who should be involved in calming the situation are traditional leaders and religious leaders, not the deployment of troops,” he said.
"Such efforts have only made the situation worse," he told UCA News.
Usman Hamid, executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia, said what happened “indicates the repetition of cases of violence that have claimed the lives of many civilians in Papua."
He said it "must be investigated through a fair and impartial legal process.”
Fatia Maulidiyanti, coordinator of the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence, said shootings at civilians showed that police “were not competent enough to prevent conflicts."
1) ‘Killing Us as if We Were Animals’: 12 Dead After Police Open Fire on Civilians
The incident is the latest in a string of violence from Indonesia’s disputed Papua province, where a conflict has been raging for decades.
27 February 2023, 11:51pm
The slaughter commenced after what appeared to be the most benign of acts: a six-year-old girl trying to buy a bottle of olive oil.
On Feb. 23, the indigenous Papuan girl, who lives in the Wamena highlands of Papua, a restive province of Indonesia, was reportedly almost kidnapped when two roving grocery salesmen urged her to get into their car when she tried to buy the oil. She refused and ran away screaming for her family. Once her relatives heard what happened, they got on their motorbikes and chased the two men down.
When they reached them, a confrontation ensued and a large crowd amassed. The accused kidnappers were migrants from elsewhere in Indonesia, while the crowd were mostly indigenous Papuans. More than a dozen police appeared, some carrying assault rifles. The authorities asked the girl to recount what happened as she stood barefoot in the dirt, fidgeting and appearing fearful under the expectant gaze of the mob.
Police attempted todefuse the situationby telling the crowd there was no kidnapping threat, but the group became increasingly agitated.
“All of the people there were in a traumatic state and filled with fear,” Theo Hesegem, the director of local rights group the Papua Justice and Human Integrity Foundation, who also witnessed events that day, told VICE World News. “The situation got harder to control.
In a video viewed by VICE World News, the murmurs of the crowd grew to a collective shout before a Papuan man lunged at one of the alleged kidnappers. The crowd surged forward, and soon after, locals started throwing stones and burning the homes of the alleged kidnappers and shops thought to belong to non-Papuan Indonesians.
Responding to the violence, witnesses say Indonesian security forces sprayed tear gas at the rioters while footage shows smoke from the burning buildings darkening the sky. Yet the police reaction only sparked further anger. The melee then shifted to the sound of live gunfire cracking through the crowd. Bodies began falling.
By the end of the incident, the two suspected kidnappers were stabbed to death and 10 indigenous Papuans werekilled, their bodies riddled with bullets from security forces. Another20 Wamena residents were injured in the attack.
“I suspect this was a targeted shooting as they hit vital areas,” Hesegem said. The Indonesian Mobile Brigade Corps—a paramilitary police force known as Brimob—began shooting “continuously,” he added.
“A number of people were shot in the neck, head, chest, back, as well as the thigh. Those were targeted shootings that resulted in death on the spot,” Hesegem said.
West Papua was incorporated into Indonesia after a controversial UN-sanctioned ballot in 1969, which was subsequentlylabeled a sham. Papuan separatists have waged an independence fight ever since, with Indonesian security forces leaving a long and well-documented record of human rights abuses against civilians and suspected fighters in their attempts to suppress the movement. Estimates for the number killed since the Indonesian takeoverrange from 100,000 to 500,000, in what has been described as a“slow-motion genocide.”
Papuan rights activists say the militarized presence has led to a “shoot first, ask questions later” mindset at the sign of any conflict. It’s a sentiment shared by a relative of one of last week’s victims.
Inggi Kogoya was inside his home when he first heard the gunshots ring out on Thursday. Flustered from the sudden sound of shooting, the 23-year-old ran outside to see what was happening. As soon as he exited his house he saw his older brother, Mian Karunggu, on the ground with a bullet wound in his chest.
“All they [Papuans] had was rocks in their hand to try to defend themselves, but it was the police and soldiers who started to shoot brutally at the people… It was a battle between rocks and weapons.”
Moments earlier his brother had been trying to protect the street by building a makeshift barricade, an instinctive act following years of living in conflict zones. Karunggu had fled to Wamena in 2018 to escape fighting in nearby Nduga regency, an area torn by clashes between Papuan separatist rebels and occupying Indonesian security forces. He was just one oftens of thousandsdisplaced by the continuing conflict and made efforts to avoid the violence.
But a bullet found him anyway. “He fell straight away,” Kogoya told VICE World News.
“All they [Papuans] had was rocks in their hand to try to defend themselves, but it was the police and soldiers who started to shoot brutally at the people… It was a battle between rocks and weapons.”
Kogoya said his brother was rushed to a nearby hospital. It was too late. Gripping the side of a stretcher and clenching his teeth from the pain as one of Karunggu’s daughters stood over him, crying, he died from his wounds.
A quiet cattle farmer who had not been a part of the mob, according to his brother, the 30-year-old Karunggu left behind an infant girl and nine other children.
Karunggu’s coffin, along with eight others adorned with crosses, was lowered into the dirt of a local cemetery on Saturday as dozens of men squatted around the fresh graves beneath an overcast sky. The community remains mournful and traumatized, Kogoya said, though he has accepted his brother’s death as murder by security forces had become “normal” in his community.
“We leave all of this to God’s plan and may he punish the evil deeds,” Kogoya said.
“We are constantly living in trauma because they [Indonesian security forces] are around us and killing us as if we were animals,” Kogoya added. “As long as we’re living in Indonesia we will never have freedom as a Papua people. This massacre is not the first time. We feel anxious living our everyday lives.”
The deadly clash is the latest in a recent spate of incidents in Papua province.
According to experts, armed rebel groups in the region havebecome more dangerous than everas they have adapted and modernized. Earlier this month, members of the West Papua National Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement, took aNew Zealand bush pilot hostageto protest an influx of Western aid to the Indonesian military. In October,four construction workers were killedin a separatist attack.
Esther Haluk, lecturer at Walter Post Theological Seminary in the Papuan capital, Jayapura, told VICE World News that Wamena has experienced decades of trauma at the hands of Indonesian security forces—a history that has kept the community on edge.
“We are not heard by the government,” she said, referencing the Indonesian national government’s decision tosplit Papuainto three more provinces last year to gain greater control over the region. “People of West Papua have dissatisfaction that can trigger bigger conflicts.”
“There is a long history of human rights violations [in Wamena], but they were never solved by the government,” said Haluk, who is also from Wamena.
“This conflict can grow bigger because there is no justice. We know we won’t get justice even though we have victims,” Haluk said.
According to theAsian Human Rights Commission, an estimated 11,000 people died from conflict-related causes between 1977 and 1978 in the Jayawijaya region encompassing Wamena. In 2003, after an attack on Indonesian security supplies,at least nine people were killed in Wamenaand thousands fled as the police and military retaliated. In 2019, at least33 people were killedduring riotsallegedlysparked when a teacher called a Papuan student a “monkey.”
Amnesty International hasreportedcases ofsexual assaultand torture by Indonesian security forces, but even when investigations are launched, perpetrators are rarely brought to justice.
The two men suspected of last week’s kidnapping wereconfirmed deadby their relatives the day after the riots. “We are still grieving, there’s still an ongoing funeral for our beloved,” a relative of one of the men told VICE World News on Sunday.
Explaining the unrest that followed, Haluk said that longstanding and legitimate fears remain in Wamena over the abduction of Papuan children. For years,muslim clerics recruited Christian Papuan childrenin Wamena and other areas and sent them away to live in Islamic boarding schools on Java without their parents’ consent.
While the head of Indonesia’s National Human Rights Commissioncalledfor law enforcement officials to investigate last week’s shootings, Papuan provincial police indicated they would instead focus on finding the people who triggered the kidnapping accusations, which they have labeled false. Since the incident, more than200 security personnel have been deployedto contain the situation.
Amnesty International released astatementcondemning the violence and called for a thorough investigation. A spokesperson for the organization also told VICE World News that the incident was an “unlawful killing” by law enforcement.
However, Indonesian authorities have taken a different view.
“The news about child kidnapping is not true because those two gentlemen were salesmen who were doing their work,” said Papua Province Police Spokesperson, Ignatius Benny Ady Prabowo, in aTV interviewon Saturday. “There is now an investigation to look for the perpetrators who disseminated the hoax and instigated provocations that led to the riot in Wamena.”
VICE World News approached the chief of the Indonesian National Police, Listyo Sigit Prabowo, for comment, but did not receive a response at the time of publishing. However, regional police chief Hesman Napitupulu toldlocal mediathat he asked residents to “not to be provoked by things that turn the situation into chaos.”
Later on Sunday night, two vendors in Wamena were also attacked,reportedlystabbed by an unidentified group. And although the violence has simmered in Wamena as of Monday, for now, many are worried that more bloodshed may be on the horizon.
“The events that occurred in Wamena indicate the repeated cases of violence that have claimed the lives of many civilians in Papua,” said Usman Hamid, executive director at Amnesty International Indonesia, in a statement. “Acts of violence, let alone causing many casualties, will only escalate the cycle of violence and armed conflict there. It’s a loss for everyone.”
2) Interim President: A new massacre in West Papua
February 25, 2023 in Statement
I am heartbroken to hear that nine West Papuans have been murdered by Indonesian security forces after unrest in Wamena, my hometown. The shootings occurred following the abduction of a Papuan child, which saw conflict break out between the community and colonial forces. Apart from the nine dead, seventeen others have been shot. On behalf of the ULMWP Executive, I offer my deepest condolences to the families of the victims, and am praying for the speedy recovery of the wounded.
This is only the latest in a long line of Indonesian massacres in West Papua. After Bloody Paniai in 2014, Bloody Abepura in 2000, and Bloody Wamena in 2003, we have now seen a new ‘Bloody Wamena’ in 2023. When will the world say ‘enough’? Where are the Pacific and Melanesian leaders? Over 500,000 of us have been killed since they invaded our lands. We are victims of a genocide. The story of Indonesian rule over West Papua is told in the blood of its indigenous people.
Words of condemnation are not enough. Without real action, Indonesia will continue to act with total impunity in West Papua. They have demonstrated over and over that we are not safe under their rule. The world must intervene: we urgently need the visit of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, as Indonesia vowed to facilitate in 2018.
This is not just my demand, but the demand of over 80 states, including the members of the Pacific Islands Forum, the Organisation of African, Caribbean, and Pacific States, Spain, Netherlands, and the EU Commission. If Indonesia continues to employ delaying tactics, the international community must compel them to allow the UN in. There can be no more excuses.
The only way to stop this bloodshed is to for Indonesia withdraw their troops and end their brutal occupation. So-called ‘Special Autonomy’ has only brought more killing. What kind of autonomy do we have if Indonesian soldiers can murder children in Paniai, only for Indonesian courts to acquit them eight years later? The only real autonomy that exists is the autonomy of Indonesian soldiers to murder us in cold blood. The only real justice will come through liberation.
The details of the known dead are as follows:
Ramot Siagian, 28, male, Batak tribe (Machete wound in back of the head, arrow wound in back).
Albert Sitorus, 26, male, Batak tribe (Machete wound in back of the head, arrow wound in back).
Stepanus Wenda, male (Village Head) in the Kelokbeam district, Lani Jaya district, gunshot to stomach.
Alfredo Elopete, male, gunshot wound to the neck.
Korwa Wanimbo, male, gunshot wound to back.
Tinus Yelipele, gunshot wound to right thigh.`
Temias Pokneagge, male.
Vicky Kogoya, gunshot wound to armpit.
Benny Wenda Interim President ULMWP Provisional Government
3) Papuan Church Council asks Egianus Kogoya to release Susi Air pilot
News Desk - Susi Air Pilot Hostage-Taking
27 February 2023
Sentani, Jubi – The Papuan Church Council called on the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) led by Egianus Kogoya to immediately release the Susi Air pilot they held hostage, Philip Mark Mehrtens.
The Council’s request was delivered during a press conference attended by Rev. Benny Giai as moderator and member Rev. Socrates Sofyan Yoman at the Council’s secretariat in Sentani District, Jayapura Regency on Friday, February 24, 2023.
Yoman said he had written an open letter to Egianus Kogoya explaining that hostage-taking events like this were not the first time in Papua. There needs to be a complete settlement and not by force.
“The Council and the international community understand the issue that the TPNPB brings, namely the Papuan struggle. We know TPNPB are not terrorists. Therefore, in the open letter I asked Egianus to free the New Zealand pilot,” he said.
Yoman also explained that Kogoya is a great commander, and what is being fought for has been going on since the 1960s, and must be seen as the struggle of the entire Papuan people.
This hostage-taking, he said, was psychologically very disturbing for the family of the pilot. He asked that the pilot be released. He was sure if the pilot was released, Kogoya would also get sympathy from the global community and the people of Indonesia. According to him, the same letter has also been sent to President Joko Widodo.
There must be a neutral mediator or negotiator trusted by both the TPNPB, the community, and the government to release the pilot. Otherwise, many victims will fall,” said Yoman.
Meanwhile, Benny Giai said there were a number of root problems that had not been resolved in Papua that triggered the hostage-taking events.
“If the root problems in Papua are not resolved, things like this will keep occurring in the future. There are people in the forest carrying weapons while remembering their families who have been killed, these conditions fuel revenge,” said Benny.
Therefore, the Council invites everyone to view that the hostage-taking occurred several days after the humanitarian pause agreement was withdrawn by the National Commission on Human RIghts (Komnas HAM) when it should have continued.
Furthermore, Giai said he regretted there was no negotiation team formed by the government to immediately release the pilot.
Giai himself was part of a negotiating team resolving the similar issue in Ilaga in 2010. At that time, Giai said, security guarantees were given directly by then Papua Police chief I Made Pastika, and everything went smoothly.
“In our letter we emphasize that humanity must be respected. If the release is not carried out, it is certain that civilians will become victims. Therefore, we ask that the hostage must be released, directly or through a negotiating team,” he said. (*)
4) TPNPB denies asking for money and weapons to free New Zealand pilot
News Desk - Susi Air Pilot Hostage-
Taking 27 February 2023
Jayapura, Jubi – The West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) denied media allegation stating Egianus Kogoya, the commander of TPNPB Kodap III Ndugama-Derakma, asked for money and weapons to free the Susi Air pilot they were holding hostage.
“No, we never ask for money and weapons in exchange for releasing pilot Philip Mark Mehrtens. That’s just propaganda from the Indonesian security forces,” said TPNPB spokesperson Sebby Sambom.
“This is a political issue, the New Zealand pilot is a guarantee of political negotiations,” Sambom continued.
Previously, Papua Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Ignatius Benny Ady Prabowo said the police would not fulfil the request for firearms and cash in exchange for releasing the Susi Air pilot. “That was their request at the beginning. But of course we don’t respond. We will not give weapons that will later be used to shoot the authorities and terrorize the community,” Benny told reporters last week.
Hostage liberation efforts from various parties
On the other hand, the Papuan Church Council said the hostage-taking of Philip Mark Mehrtens was psychologically very disturbing for the family, wife, and children of Mehrtens. The Council demanded the pilot be released. With the release of Philip Mark Mehrtens, the Council was sure Kogoya would get sympathy from the global community and the people of Indonesia.
“There must be a neutral mediator or negotiator trusted by both the TPNPB, the community, and the government to release the pilot. Otherwise, many victims will fall,” said Rev. Socratez Sofyan Yoman, a member of the Papuan Church Council.
Meanwhile, New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs chief media advisor Corinne Ambler said the welfare of its citizens is a top priority. “We are doing everything we can, including deploying New Zealand consular staff to ensure the safe release of our citizen taken hostage,” Ambler said.
Ambler added that New Zealand is working closely with Indonesian authorities to ensure the safe release of Philip Mark Mehrtens. (*)
1) Kidnapped pilot a frightening reminder of forgotten war on Australia’s doorstep
Ben Bohane Journalist
February 24, 2023 — 7.00pm
“Wah Wah Wah!” came the jungle cry as I watched dozens of OPM (Free West Papua) guerrillas stream down mountain ravines towards our village, adorned in cassowary feathers, smeared in pig fat (to stay warm in the mountain air) and armed with bows and arrows.
They descended for an independence flag-raising ceremony and pig feast in Mapenduma village, in the Nduga highlands of West Papua. They had come to hear speeches from their commanders, including Daniel Kogeya and to meet me, the first journalist to ever venture there.
Nearly 30 years ago, I reported for this masthead on their struggle for independence which had many of the characteristics of neighbouring East Timor’s quest, but none of the publicity. Today their situation remains much the same: a long-running guerrilla war, an estimated 200,000 dead since Indonesia’s invasion in 1963, plus tens of thousands of refugees both internally displaced and along the Papua New Guinea border. Forgotten.
West Papua remains the most significant war in our immediate region, yet few hear about it. That’s because Indonesia forbids all foreign media from visiting, or any INGOs from operating there. It continues to target local journalists. In fact, across the entire Asia Pacific region there is only one other place so deliberately cut off from the world – North Korea. The war undermines Indonesian claims of support for democracy and a free press, while also highlighting the hypocrisy of Australia’s claims to support peace and the “Pacific family” in our region.
Australia continues to back Indonesian forces there. Yet for all the new concentration on Australia’s defence, the only war in our actual neighbourhood is never mentioned in “white papers” or “defence reviews”. Why? It’s the only real war in the Pacific that continues at a time everyone is focused on China.
In late 1995, it was Commander Daniel Kogeya and his men who took seven Europeans hostage some weeks after I left them. An Indonesian special forces operation intervened after three months. While the Europeans were rescued, two Indonesian students – who got caught up in the stand-off – were shot and killed. Afterwards, many villagers were murdered in payback by Indonesian forces.
Kogeya was eventually captured, tortured and killed by Indonesian forces. But his movement continues with the OPM Central Command in the mountains above Freeport mine and is responsible for the latest kidnapping of New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens.
The pilot, who has flown for Jetstar and other airlines in Indonesia and Hong Kong, is reportedly unharmed, but there are risks if Indonesian forces attack his OPM captors like they did in 1996. Amid negotiations, the New Zealand government has intervened to stop one Indonesian rescue operation, fearing a violent outcome, perhaps with the 1996 situation in mind. West Papuan leader Benny Wenda has called for his release and blames the situation on Indonesia continuing to block a visit by the UN Human Rights Commissioner for the past three years.
Kidnapping can never be condoned, but context is important. In a region completely cut off from international media and scrutiny, West Papuans have few avenues to publicise their struggle. This is another desperate cry for international intervention since the UN and regional powers have failed them. The UN bears much responsibility since its fraudulent Act of Free Choice in 1969 officially handed West Papua to Indonesia.
More than 50 years later, it appears we can never offend Indonesia even as its military operates with impunity in West Papua. Why are we forging closer defence ties with Indonesia, which maintains strong military and security links with Russia, attacks regional interests and undermines our Pacific “step up”?
Locals believe Indonesia was most likely behind a massive cyberattack on Vanuatu recently which brought down the entire government’s intranet, paralysing its ability to function online for six weeks. This was the most serious cyberattack on any Pacific nation so far and feels like an “Estonia moment” - when that Baltic country became the first nation to come under a sustained cyberattack, by Russia.
For decades Jakarta, Washington and Canberra have been complicit in the greatest injustice found in our immediate region – allowing Indonesia to continue its brutal occupation of West Papua unhindered so as to profit from its considerable resources, mainly by US-owned Freeport which operates the world’s largest gold mine there.
In the end, American corporate interests in West Papua should not be allowed to trump legitimate Australian and Pacific security interests at a time when building a regional Pacific alliance to counter China (and Russia) is the main game. Indonesia seems not to have got the memo and does not appreciate how much criticism Australia gets in Melanesia because of its appeasement of Indonesian aggression. Thus, Pacific nations seek to minimise Indonesian influence while welcoming Chinese engagement.
At a time Australia is pushing its climate change credentials, it seems unconcerned the most significant ecocide going on in our region is the destruction of West Papuan rainforests by oil-palm conglomerates. This is happening in the second-largest wilderness area in the world after the Amazon basin.
Just across the sea from us, 4 million West Papuans remain hostages to war, greed and timid diplomacy. No-one comes out of this long-running tragedy looking good; not Indonesia, not the UN, America, Australia or the paralysed Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), supposed to represent Melanesian interests.
Some see West Papua as “the Ukraine of the Pacific”. So it’s ironic that Australia is helping faraway Ukraine but not the one next door to us whose struggle is equally justified and ultimately more consequential for us.
In West Papua, we remain on the wrong side of history, and humanity.
Ben Bohane is a Vanuatu-based photojournalist and producer who has reported the Pacific since 1994. He is co-founder of the Australian war photography collective DegreeSouth.
Bonnie Harrison is the associate producer of The Detail.
PODCAST: THE DETAIL
The Week in Detail: West Papua, forestry slash, and light pollution
Every weekday, The Detail makes sense of the big news stories.
This week, we looked at the conflict in West Papua where local man Phillip Mehrtens is being held hostage, whether we can curb the devastation caused by forestry slash, why young New Zealanders are switching off from homegrown news and media, the clean up effort on the ground in Hawkes Bay, and the importance of protecting nighttime darkness for our own good and that of te taiao.
How did a Christchurch pilot end up a pawn in the decades-long struggle for West Papua's independence?
Dr Cammi Webb-Gannon from Australia's University of Wollongong, an expert on decolonisation in the Pacific, calls Phillip Merhtens "incredibly unlucky" - a man in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Tom Kitchin talks to Webb-Gannon as well as RNZ's Johnny Blades about the complex geopolitics Mehrtens has been caught up in.
3) New Zealand Diplomats Keep Monitoring Pilot Hostage in Papua
Translator Dewi Elvia Muthiariny
Editor Laila Afifa
24 February 2023 10:15 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Teuku Faizasyah confirmed that the New Zealand government had sent representatives to Timika, Papua, to monitor pilot Philip Mehrtens who was held hostage by the Free Papua Movement (OPM) for the past two weeks.
“The New Zealand Embassy in Jakarta deployed their consular officers to Papua. New Zealand's representative specifically deals with consular matters for its citizens,” said Faizasyah via text message to Tempo, Thursday, February 23.
According to the report of New Zealand-based news media RNZ on February 15, three New Zealand diplomats and two staffers from the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry landed in Mimika to monitor the progress of the search for the Susi Air pilot by the separatist group.
Chief Media Advisor of New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Corinne Ambler told Tempo on Thursday, February 23, that the welfare of its citizens is the top priority.
“We are doing everything we can, including deploying New Zealand consular staff, to secure the safe release of the hostage,” Ambler said.
“We are working closely with the Indonesian authorities to ensure the safe release of the New Zealander,” she said, adding that the captain’s family asked for privacy “at this incredibly challenging time.”
New Zealand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson stopped short of providing further details about the rescue efforts. Yet Ambler said, “this is an evolving situation.”
Meanwhile, Faizasyah emphasized that the rescue operation of captain Mehrtens was the authority of the Indonesian government.
Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal, and Security Affairs Mahfud MD has not yet responded to Tempo’s request for confirmation regarding the progress of the rescue and the stagnant diplomatic approach.
On Tuesday, February 21, Mahfud claimed the government had already discovered the whereabouts of Captain Mehrtens and had surrounded the areas of the Papuan armed group.
