A New Zealand pilot has been released from captivity after being abducted and his small plane set on fire by separatists after it landed at a remote Indonesian airport early last year.
“Today I finally escaped. I'm really happy that I will be going home with my family soon,” Philippe Mertens, 38, who was working for Indonesian airline Susi Air at the time he was abducted in Papua on Feb. 7, 2023, told reporters on Saturday.
“I would like to thank everyone who helped me to escape safe and healthy,” Mertens added at a news conference in Timika, a mining town west of Paro's remote airstrip where he was being held captive.
Television news showed a skinny, long-haired Mertens wearing a dark green shirt and black shorts, sitting in a room surrounded by police and local officials. Mertens was seen sobbing in the video as he spoke to his family, and a police officer tried to calm him down by patting him on the back, according to the Associated Press. Mertens was then flown to Jakarta to be reunited with his family.
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New Zealand pilot Philip Mertens (left), who was held hostage for more than a year in Indonesia's restive Papua region, sits with police officers after being released in Timika, Saturday, September 21. (Satgas Damai Cartens via The Associated Press)
“I am pleased that Philip Martens has been released after more than 19 months in captivity,” New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon wrote to X. “I would like to thank everyone in Indonesia and New Zealand who supported this positive outcome for Philip and his family.”
The Associated Press reports that rebels are using violence to try to secure independence amid a worsening security situation in Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua, a former Dutch colony in the western part of the island of New Guinea that is ethnically and culturally distinct from most of Indonesia.
Papua joined Indonesia in 1969 in UN-sponsored elections that were widely seen as a sham, the agency added. A small-scale rebellion has simmered since then. The conflict escalated last year, leaving dozens of rebels, security forces and civilians dead.
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New Zealand pilot Philip Martens spoke to media after his release on Saturday. (AP/Endy Langobelen)
At the time of the kidnapping, rebel spokesman Seby Sambom was quoted as saying: “We will never release the pilot hostages unless Indonesia recognises Papua and liberates it from Indonesian colonialism.”
But leaders of the West Papua Liberation Army, the militant wing of the Free Papua Movement, on Tuesday published a proposal for Mertens' release, outlining conditions including media involvement, according to the Associated Press.
Indonesian police spokesman Bayu Suseno said Saturday that Mertens' release was the result of hard work by a small task force that has been reaching out to separatists through local churches, community leaders and young people.
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters also said a range of government agencies had been working with Indonesian authorities and others over the past 19-and-a-half months to secure Mr Mertens' release, and that government officials were also supporting Mr Mertens' family.
New Zealand pilot Philip Martens sits after being released on Saturday, September 21, after being held hostage for over a year. (Satgas Damai Cartens via The Associated Press)
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“This is the result of a very long negotiating process and a patient approach that was non-repressive,” Indonesian President Joko Widodo added.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
