New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens freed by rebels after 19 months of captivity in Indonesian Papua region

A New Zealand pilot who had been held hostage for more than a year in the volatile Papua region has been freed by separatists, Indonesian authorities said on Saturday.

Phillip Mark Mehrtens, a 38-year-old pilot from Christchurch who worked for Indonesian aviation company Susi Air, was handed over to the Cartenz Peace Taskforce, a joint security force set up by the Indonesian government to deal with separatist groups in Papua, after being allowed to walk free early Saturday morning, special forces spokesman Bayu Suseno said.

“We managed to pick him up safe and sound” in Yuguru village in Nduga district, Suseno said, adding that Mehrtens was flown to the mining town of Timika for further medical and psychological tests.

Independence fighters led by Egianus Kogoya, regional commander of the Free Papua Movement, attacked a single-engine plane on a small runway in Paro on February 7, 2023, and kidnapped Mehrtens.

Rebels have resorted to violence in an attempt to gain independence amid a deteriorating security situation in Indonesia’s easternmost region, Papua, a former Dutch colony in western New Guinea that is ethnically and culturally distinct from most of Indonesia.

Papua was annexed by Indonesia in 1969 following a UN-brokered vote that was widely viewed as a sham.

Since then, a minor rebellion has broken out in the region.

The conflict escalated last year, with dozens of rebels, security forces and civilians killed.

Kogoya initially said the rebels would not release Mehrtens unless the Indonesian government allowed Papua to gain sovereignty.

Then on Tuesday, leaders of the West Papua Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement known as TPNPB, presented a proposal for Mehrtens’ release, which included conditions for media involvement in his release.

Suseno said Mehrtens’ release was the result of hard work by a small task force that communicated with the separatists led by Kogoi through local church and community leaders as well as young people.

“This is incredibly good news,” Suseno said in a video statement. “The attempt to free the pilot using a gentle approach resulted in the release of the hostage without any casualties to security forces, civilians or the pilot himself.”

New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters confirmed Mehrtens’ release after 592 days in captivity.

“We are pleased and relieved to be able to confirm that Phillip Mehrtens is safe and sound and has been able to speak with his family,” Peters said in a written statement Saturday. “This news must come as a huge relief to his friends and loved ones.”

Peters said multiple New Zealand government agencies had been working with Indonesian and other authorities to secure his release over the past 19 1/2 months. Officials were also supporting Mehrtens’ family, Peters said.

He added that many news agencies had shown “cooperation and restraint” in reporting the story.

“The Mehrtens family has been negatively impacted by this case and have requested privacy,” Peters said. “We ask that the media respect their wishes and therefore have no further comment at this time.”

New Zealand media reported that during Mehrtens’ captivity he was one of many expatriate pilots employed by Susi Air and that he had been living in Bali with his family in recent years.

Mehrtens, who was 37 when he was kidnapped, was from Christchurch, New Zealand, and had received pilot training in his home country, according to news sites Stuff and the New Zealand Herald.

“We released him,” Peters told reporters Saturday in Auckland, New Zealand. The development was a “huge relief,” he said.

Mehrtens was in Timika, Papua, at the time, Peters said, but would travel to Jakarta “very, very soon” to see his family.

Peters has not spoken to Mehrtens since his release. The news was “one of the best stories I’ve had” in his 45 years as a lawmaker, the three-time foreign minister added.

He declined to provide details about how the pilot was freed. It was a “challenging” environment and building trust was the most difficult aspect of securing the New Zealander’s release, Peters said.

“It was quite nerve-racking, to keep a cool head and not get carried away, not to do anything that would jeopardize the chances,” he said. “Because we were always afraid we might not succeed.”

Indonesian President Joko Widodo congratulated the Indonesian military and police who helped free the pilot by prioritizing persuasion and safety.

“It was a very long negotiation process and our patience not to use repression,” Widodo said.

In April 2023, armed separatists attacked Indonesian troops sent to rescue Mehrtens, killing at least six soldiers.

In August, gunmen attacked a helicopter and killed its New Zealand pilot, Glen Malcolm Conning, after it landed in Alama, a remote village in Mimika District in Central Papua Province.

No one has taken responsibility for the attack, with the rebels and the Indonesian authorities blaming each other.

In 1996, the Free Papua Movement kidnapped 26 members of a World Wildlife Fund research mission in Mapenduma. Two of the kidnapped Indonesians were killed by their captors. The remaining hostages were released within five months.