Kidnapped pilot will be hoping appeal to his Papuan captors gets a better hearing than Peters’ Waitangi speech
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has had more than a hostile Waitangi audience to contend with over the past few days. Among his concerns has been the plight of a New Zealand pilot, Phillip Mehrtens, who is being held hostage in remote Papua, Indonesia.
Peters has appealed for the immediate release of Mehrtens, who was taken hostage a year ago on 7 February in Paro, Papua, while providing vital air links and supplies to remote communities.
“We strongly urge those holding Phillip to release him immediately and without harm. His continued detention serves the interests of no one,” Peters said.
And:
“Let me be absolutely clear. There can never be any justification for hostage taking.”
Good luck with that, although Mehrtens will be hoping his captors pay much greater heed to Peters’ appeal than the boorish Waitangi crowd.
According to the minister’s media statement, just before Christmas Mehrtens had contacted some friends and family to assure them he is alive and well.
The government nevertheless is concerned at the length of time he has been held.
The statement further said that, for the past year, several New Zealand Government agencies have been working with Indonesian authorities and others towards securing Phillip’s release.
Peters said he had spoken with the Mehrtens family recently, and assured them the Government was exploring all avenues to bring Phillip home.
“They have requested privacy and I’d ask that their wishes are respected.”
But a CNN report today raises questions about the government’s handling of the negotiations.
It recalls that a group of armed fighters led by tribal warlord Eganius Koyega kidnapped Mehrtens after his light plane landed on a delivery run in the rugged highlands of Nduga Regency.
Mehrtens’ captors initially threatened to kill him unless New Zealand agreed to pressure Indonesia into allowing West Papua to secede from Indonesia, a seemingly impossible demand.
But a year on, that demand seems more distant than ever, and little is known about where Mehrtens is being held or how he’s surviving life in captivity surrounded by armed fighters, led by Koyega.
The CNN report says Koyega – the son of a West Papuan independence fighter who was killed by the Indonesian military – has a reputation as a brutal paramilitary hardened by bloody clashes with Jakarta’s special forces troops.
He is a member of the West Papuan National Liberation Army (TPNPB), the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement, which seeks independence.
The TPNPB is designated by the Indonesian government as a terrorist organization, and in the past, the group has taken hostages to further their cause.
But Mehrtens has been held for far longer than most captives, and now a rift has emerged between Mehrtens’ captors as to what to do with the 37-year-old husband and father.
In the lead up to the one-year anniversary of Mehrtens’s capture, the TPNPB leadership publicly pressured Koyega to release him “for the sake of humanity.”
Koyega has not yet agreed.
CNN says:
For months, he has led a game of cat and mouse with Indonesian soldiers through West Papua’s thick jungles as pressure builds on the Indonesian Army to free the foreign hostage.
In March 2023 Indonesian soldiers caught up to Koyega’s group, but they were pushed back after a fatal gunbattle.
Koyega has set several deadlines, threatening to shoot Mehrtens if his demands aren’t met, but hasn’t followed through.
Damien Kingsbury, an academic and conflict resolution expert who was involved in the initial negotiations to free Mehrtens, told CNN New Zealand appears unwilling to negotiate directly with Koyega.
“There was an offer put to the New Zealand government last week to meet to discuss the process by which Mehrtens could be released, and the New Zealand government has not responded to that offer,” he said.
However, the New Zealand government this week acknowledged a new hostage video was filmed on December 22 that shows Mehrtens addressing his family from the Papuan highlands, telling them he is in good health.
Indonesian efforts to free Mehrtens have been “spectacularly unsuccessful,” Kingsbury said.
“The Indonesian response is dictated by the Indonesian military and their view is that they will hunt down this group, kill the leaders and release Mehrtens.
“They have had contact on a couple of occasions and Indonesian soldiers have been killed. That indicates how nimble Koyega’s group is in the field and how unable Indonesia is to resolve it militarily, which is their preference.”
Whatever the response to Peters’ appeal might be, it will have to be communicated to him somewhere in the Pacific.
Along with Pacific Peoples Minister Shane Reti, he is visiting Tonga, Cook Islands and Samoa this week.
They left New Zealand yesterday and return on Saturday.
And:
“Let me be absolutely clear. There can never be any justification for hostage taking.”
Good luck with that, although Mehrtens will be hoping his captors pay much greater heed to Peters’ appeal than the boorish Waitangi crowd.
According to the minister’s media statement, just before Christmas Mehrtens had contacted some friends and family to assure them he is alive and well.
The government nevertheless is concerned at the length of time he has been held.
The statement further said that, for the past year, several New Zealand Government agencies have been working with Indonesian authorities and others towards securing Phillip’s release.
Peters said he had spoken with the Mehrtens family recently, and assured them the Government was exploring all avenues to bring Phillip home.
“They have requested privacy and I’d ask that their wishes are respected.”
But a CNN report today raises questions about the government’s handling of the negotiations.
It recalls that a group of armed fighters led by tribal warlord Eganius Koyega kidnapped Mehrtens after his light plane landed on a delivery run in the rugged highlands of Nduga Regency.
Mehrtens’ captors initially threatened to kill him unless New Zealand agreed to pressure Indonesia into allowing West Papua to secede from Indonesia, a seemingly impossible demand.
But a year on, that demand seems more distant than ever, and little is known about where Mehrtens is being held or how he’s surviving life in captivity surrounded by armed fighters, led by Koyega.
The CNN report says Koyega – the son of a West Papuan independence fighter who was killed by the Indonesian military – has a reputation as a brutal paramilitary hardened by bloody clashes with Jakarta’s special forces troops.
He is a member of the West Papuan National Liberation Army (TPNPB), the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement, which seeks independence.
The TPNPB is designated by the Indonesian government as a terrorist organization, and in the past, the group has taken hostages to further their cause.
But Mehrtens has been held for far longer than most captives, and now a rift has emerged between Mehrtens’ captors as to what to do with the 37-year-old husband and father.
In the lead up to the one-year anniversary of Mehrtens’s capture, the TPNPB leadership publicly pressured Koyega to release him “for the sake of humanity.”
Koyega has not yet agreed.
CNN says:
For months, he has led a game of cat and mouse with Indonesian soldiers through West Papua’s thick jungles as pressure builds on the Indonesian Army to free the foreign hostage.
In March 2023 Indonesian soldiers caught up to Koyega’s group, but they were pushed back after a fatal gunbattle.
Koyega has set several deadlines, threatening to shoot Mehrtens if his demands aren’t met, but hasn’t followed through.
Damien Kingsbury, an academic and conflict resolution expert who was involved in the initial negotiations to free Mehrtens, told CNN New Zealand appears unwilling to negotiate directly with Koyega.
“There was an offer put to the New Zealand government last week to meet to discuss the process by which Mehrtens could be released, and the New Zealand government has not responded to that offer,” he said.
However, the New Zealand government this week acknowledged a new hostage video was filmed on December 22 that shows Mehrtens addressing his family from the Papuan highlands, telling them he is in good health.
Indonesian efforts to free Mehrtens have been “spectacularly unsuccessful,” Kingsbury said.
“The Indonesian response is dictated by the Indonesian military and their view is that they will hunt down this group, kill the leaders and release Mehrtens.
“They have had contact on a couple of occasions and Indonesian soldiers have been killed. That indicates how nimble Koyega’s group is in the field and how unable Indonesia is to resolve it militarily, which is their preference.”
Whatever the response to Peters’ appeal might be, it will have to be communicated to him somewhere in the Pacific.
Along with Pacific Peoples Minister Shane Reti, he is visiting Tonga, Cook Islands and Samoa this week.
They left New Zealand yesterday and return on Saturday.
Latest from the Beehive
5 FEBRUARY 2024
Foreign Minister Winston Peters has appealed to those holding New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens in remote Papua, Indonesia, to release him immediately.
Point of Order is a blog focused on politics and the economy run by veteran newspaper reporters Bob Edlin and Ian Templeton
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