New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens has been freed after multiple and a half years in captivity in Indonesia’s West Papua area, Indonesian police have stated.
The transfer, reported by police in an announcement on Saturday, follows a proposal of phrases made this week by rebels within the area
Mehrtens, a former Jetstar pilot, was taken hostage by the West Papua Nationwide Liberation Military (TPNPB) in February 2023 as a bargaining chip for its push for independence from Indonesia. It got here after he landed a small industrial passenger aircraft at Paro airport in Nduga, the centre of the rising Papuan insurgency.
On Tuesday, the TPNPB launched an announcement outlining the phrases of his launch, detailing a variety of circumstances to be adopted by the Indonesian authorities, together with permitting “open entry” for media to be concerned within the launch course of.
It additionally known as for the Indonesian authorities to droop army operations throughout Mehrten’s launch, and for the New Zealand authorities to “present area” for Mehrtens to convey “what he felt” throughout his yr and 7 months with the TPNPB.
Mehrtens’ kidnapping has renewed consideration on the long-running and lethal battle that has raged in West Papua, which makes up the western half of Papua New Guinea, since Indonesia took management of the previous Dutch colony in 1969.
The TPNPB is the armed wing of the Free West Papua Motion, which has continued to demand a good vote on self-determination.
Peaceable acts of civil disobedience by Indigenous West Papuans, akin to elevating the banned “Morning Star” flag, are met with police and army brutality and lengthy jail sentences.
In 2022, UN human rights consultants known as for pressing and unrestricted humanitarian entry to the area due to severe considerations about “stunning abuses towards Indigenous Papuans, together with baby killings, disappearances, torture and mass displacement of individuals”.
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