After being held captive for over 18 months in the volatile Papua region of Indonesia, New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens was released on Saturday, the foreign minister of Wellington announced.
The news that Phillip Mehrtens is safe, well, and has had a chance to speak with his family fills us with pleasure and relief.
Winston Peters said in a statement, “This news must be an enormous relief for his friends and loved ones.” On February 7, 2023, Mehrtens was abducted by an armed group affiliated with the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) upon his landing in a tiny commercial aircraft in the isolated and hilly region of Nduga.
The goal of Mehrtens’ captors’ detention was to exert pressure on New Zealand to persuade Indonesia to grant Papua’s request to split from Indonesia—a request that would seem unfeasible.
According to Peters, his ministry spearheaded a “sustained whole-of-Government effort to secure Phillip Mehrtens’ release,” with personnel stationed in Wellington as well as Indonesia.He added that the family had asked for privacy and said no further comment would be issued at the moment.
Egianus Kogeya, a member of the TPNPB, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement, is in charge of the armed combatants who support independence. At first, they threatened to kill the New Zealander if his nation did not comply with their demand for independence.
The Indonesian government has designated the TPNPB as a terrorist organization, and it has a history of capturing hostages in order to advance its goals. After a contentious vote in 1969, Papua, a resource-rich former Dutch colony, was officially absorbed into Indonesia.
The poll, according to proponents of Papuan independence, was neither fair nor free. Pictures from his proof-of-life have been hazy, but since his capture last year, Mehrtens has appeared more disheveled and thinner. He typically appears in the midst of fighters with firearms, bows, and arrows.