Kiwi pilot Philip Mehrtens’s year-long hostage ordeal: Papuan rebels split on hostage release

A year after his kidnapping, West Papuan resistance leaders are split over whether to release pilot Philip Mehrtens. 

Kidnapped New Zealand pilot Philip Mark Mehrtens with his Papuan rebel captors. Picture: Twitter

Twelve months to the day that New Zealand pilot Philip Mehrtens was taken hostage by Papuan separatists in the remote highlands of Indonesia’s easternmost province, a spokesman for the rebel group ­behind his kidnapping say it is time for him to be returned to his family.

But convincing Mehrtens’ captors – hardened militant separatists operating under the command of a notorious rebel leader – may be no easy task.

The West Papuan National Liberation Army (TPNPB) appears divided over what to do with the 38-year-old father of one – between the commanders who want him ­released and hardened foot soldiers who insist first on the liberation of West Papua from Indonesian control.

“The pilot must be released for the sake of humanity, based on the International Humanitarian Law of War,” TPNPB spokesman Sebby Sambom told The Australian on Tuesday. “There is no reason for the pilot to be detained until the end of the world.”

New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said on Monday that his government was continuing to work with Indonesian authorities to secure Mr Mehrtens’ release, and that his “continued detention serves the interests of no one”.

“We strongly urge those holding Philip to release him immediately and without harm,” Mr Peters said.

Sambom said TPNPB commanders now agreed there was nothing to be gained in keeping the Mr Mehrtens hostage, and much to lose should he die in the inhospitable Papuan jungle where he has been held among tribal groups.

“If we release this New Zealand Pilot with respect, then we will be respected by the international community and even the UN, and the dignity of the Papuan people’s struggle for independence will be raised,” a TPNPB statement ­released to The Australian said.

“But if (he) dies in a place of ­detention then we will be blamed by the International community and the UN.”

The commercial pilot for Indonesia’s Susi Air was seized by TPNPB division leader Egianus Kogeya and his soldiers after landing a routine passenger flight in mountainous and conflict-racked Nduga district, part of a region ­formerly known as West Papua but since cleaved into five provinces by Jakarta.

Several “proof-of-life” photos and videos have since been released, each showing an increasingly gaunt Mr Mehrtens in bushland surrounded by heavily-armed soldiers.

In the videos he reassures his family of his safety, urges Indonesia to liberate Papua, and in a third last April pleads for the Indonesian military to call a halt to airstrikes on the area in which he is being held.

Kogeya was already infamous for having led a 2018 massacre of 21 mostly civilian road workers in Nduga, but his ability to evade ­Indonesian security force efforts to rescue Mr Mehrtens has burnished his credentials among young indigenous Papuans.

However, Sambom feared the hostage issue had become counter-productive for the West Papuan cause, pointing to the Indonesian and NZ governments’ steadfast refusal to negotiate and the fact that even Palestinian Hamas militants – who killed 1200 Israelis last October and kidnapped 200 more – limited their demands to a prisoner exchange.

Kogeya’s continued insistence that Indonesia relinquish control of Papua in exchange for Mr Mehrtens – months after TPNPB commanders dropped that demand – was “absolutely impossible”, he said.

“There is no history in this world of any country ever (gaining) independence in exchange for (release) of a hostage person, so this is something that needs to be understood by all parties, and ­especially the TPNPB and also the fighters from Ndugama,” Sambom said.

Underscoring schisms within the Papuan liberation movement, however, Free Papuan Movement (OPM) commander Jeffrey Bomanak rejected Sambom’s proposal, insisting the OPM was the “main entity leading the struggle for the Papua nation for 62 years”.

“Nothing is impossible in the struggle for Papua. If God permits, through Philip Mehrtens, Papua can gain independence and open the world’s eyes, why not?,” ­Bomanak said in a YouTube statement.