Australian archaeologist taken hostage in Papua New Guinea

An archaeologist held captive by an armed gang in the PNG highlands is unharmed and attempting to negotiate his way out.

The archaeologist has been part of a long-term project on the Great Papuan Plateau.

An Australian archaeologist ­kidnapped with three local ­researchers by an armed gang in the Southern Highlands of Papua New Guinea on Sunday is in “good health” and “safe at the ­moment” as authorities continue to negotiate their release, PNG Acting Prime Minister John Rosso said.

The Queensland professor was seized at gunpoint early on Sunday with at least three University of PNG students from ­Fogomaiyu village in the remote and densely forested Southern Highlands Province by 20 armed men.

Mr Rosso confirmed to The Australian that the kidnappers, whom he described as “local thugs”, had “extended their initial deadline” and PNG police were working with local leaders and church elders to help secure the hostages’ release.

Authorities were “keeping the Australian high commission and relevant agencies updated of every step we take … and deploying all resources to ensure they are released safely”, Mr Rosso said.

Police Commissioner David Manning, who was in Australia along with several senior PNG ministers at the weekend for high-level bilateral meetings, said the kidnapping was ­opportunistic.

“The criminals sighted the men by chance and took them into the bush, and have obviously not thought the situation through before they acted,” Mr Manning said.

The kidnappers would be treated fairly if they released the hostages but, if not, “our specialised security force personnel will use whatever means necessary against the criminals, up to and including the use of lethal force, in order to provide for the safety and security of the people being held”.

Sally Lloyd, an Australian NGO worker who has lived and worked in the nearby Mt Bosavi region for decades, told The Australian she had spoken by phone to the academic and “he was OK but keen to have the matter ­resolved obviously”. “We are close by and doing what we can for him from a ­humanitarian perspective,” she said.

The hostages are being held in an extremely remote area of PNG where three provinces meet – the Southern Highlands, Western District and Hela Province, the home region of Prime Minister James Marape.

 

Mr Marape appealed directly to the kidnappers during a Monday morning press conference in Port Moresby before leaving for Fiji to “do yourself and do your country a favour by releasing the people concerned”, adding authorities were in “running conversations” with the criminals.

“I just want to inform the families of those taken hostage that we have been at work and contact has been made with people in the bush through secondary sources,” he said.

“We’ve got police and military on standby to assist. But, in the first instance, we want those criminals to release those who are held in captivity.

“We have been keeping this under close wraps because of the sensitivity and the need for us to get our friends who were captured, get them alive and safe.”

Mr Marape indicated local missionaries who had been living in the area for a long time were acting as intermediaries with the kidnappers, and had spoken to the Australian professor by satellite phone.

“This morning there was positive news that they are alive and villagers on the ground who are not involved in these criminal activities … have also been assisting in negotiations to get them out,” he said. “So I’m confident, I’m optimistic, I’m prayerful that we get … them out.”

The professor has been part of a long-term project on the Great Papuan Plateau, located in the dense tropical forests between the Southern Highlands and the Gulf lowlands of PNG.

Comment has been sought from both the University of Papua New Guinea and the academic’s Australian university.

DFAT declined to comment, citing the need for sensitivity ­during such hostage situations. The latest kidnapping follows the seizure of New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens by independence fighters from the West Papua National Liberation Army earlier this month.

Mr Mehrtens, a pilot for Indonesian airline Susi Air, was taken hostage by the rebel group to bring international attention to its decades-long struggle “to free Papua” from Indonesia.

The group has claimed it will hold Mr Mehrtens until the Indonesian government recognises the independence of West Papua, and also warned any foreigners who enter declared war zones in the remote Papuan highlands on the Indonesian side of the island – which it shares with PNG – will be considered hostage targets.

While Indonesian civilian officials have been attempting to negotiate the release of the former Jetstar pilot, the military warned on Friday its patience for “soft diplomacy” was wearing thin and it would soon mount a military rescue mission.