New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens has been freed after more than one-and-a-half years in captivity in Indonesia’s West Papua region, Indonesian police have said.
The move, reported by police in a statement on Saturday and confirmed by New Zealand’s foreign minister, Winston Peters, follows an offer of terms made this week by rebels in the region
Mehrtens, a former Jetstar pilot, was taken hostage by the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) in February 2023 as a bargaining chip for its push for independence from Indonesia. It came after he landed a small commercial passenger plane at Paro airport in Nduga, the centre of the growing Papuan insurgency.
On Tuesday, the TPNPB released a statement outlining the terms of his release, detailing a number of conditions to be followed by the Indonesian government, including allowing “open access” for media to be involved in the release process.
It also called for the Indonesian government to suspend military operations during Mehrten’s release, and for the New Zealand government to “provide space” for Mehrtens to convey “what he felt” during his year and seven months with the TPNPB.
In August gunmen from the rebels allegedly shot dead New Zealand helicopter pilot, Glen Malcolm Conning.
Earlier this week it was revealed the rebels had proposed terms for Mehrten’s release after promising in February he would be released.
Reuters reported Mehrtens was picked up by authorities in Nduga regency and Indonesian police said he was undergoing health check-ups and a physiological examination in Timika regency.
Peters said he was “pleased and relieved” to confirm Mehrtens was “safe and well and has been able to talk with his family.”
“This news must be an enormous relief for his friends and loved ones,” he said.
Government agencies had been working with Indonesian authorities for 19 months to secure the release, he said.
“The case has taken a toll on the Mehrtens family, who have asked for privacy. We ask media outlets to respect their wishes and therefore we have no further comment at this stage.”
Mehrtens’ kidnapping renewed attention on the long-running and deadly conflict that has raged in West Papua, which makes up the western half of the island of New Guinea, since Indonesia took control of the former Dutch colony in 1969.
The TPNPB is the armed wing of the Free West Papua Movement, which has continued to demand a fair vote on self-determination.
Peaceful acts of civil disobedience by Indigenous West Papuans, such as raising the banned “Morning Star” flag, are met with police and military brutality and long jail sentences.
In 2022, UN human rights experts called for urgent and unrestricted humanitarian access to the region because of serious concerns about “shocking abuses against Indigenous Papuans, including child killings, disappearances, torture and mass displacement of people”.
