A pilot from New Zealand was killed by Papuan separatist fighters shortly after he landed a helicopter in Indonesia’s Papua region yesterday, Indonesian authorities say.
According to the Associated Press, which cited Faizal Ramadhani, a National Police member who heads the joint security peace force in Papua, Glen Malcolm Conning was shot to death by gunmen allegedly with the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), after landing in Alama, a remote village in Mimika district of Central Papua province.
Conning, 50, was working as a pilot for the Indonesian aviation company PT Intan Angkasa Air Service, which runs light aircraft and helicopter services in remote parts of Papua. The Indonesian authorities claim that Conning was killed when rebels stormed the helicopter and rounded up those on board.
He said the gunmen released the Indigenous Papuan passengers and set fire to the plane. “All passengers were safe because they were local residents of Alama village,” Ramadhani said, according to AP.
West Papua Liberation Army spokesperson Sebby Sambom told a number of media outlets that he had not received any reports from fighters on the ground about the killing and could confirm it. But he did say that if the reports were true, that it was “his own fault.”
“We have released warnings several times that the area is under our restricted zone, an armed conflict area that is prohibited for any civilian aircraft to land,” Sambom told the AP.
Papua has been home to a separatist insurgency since the region was absorbed by Indonesia after what independence activists say was a flawed U.N. referendum in 1969. But the conflict has worsened considerably since 2018, as the Indonesian state has extended infrastructure and transport links into the heart of highland Papua. This has inflamed resistance, prompting more sophisticated and successful attacks by TPNPB and other pro-independence groups.
The killing came just days after the TPNPB said that it was willing to release Philip Mark Mehrtens, another pilot from New Zealand, who was abducted by rebels 18 months ago. In interviews with a number of media outlets over the past few days, Sambom said that Mehrtens, who has been in the custody of separatists in a remote part of Papua since his abduction, would be released in August or September.
Mehrtens was abducted by independence fighters on February 7, 2023, shortly after his single-engine plane touched down at an airstrip in the district of Nduga, which lies in the Papuan highlands to the east of where Conning was killed. The abduction was reportedly carried out by an armed faction of the TPNPB led by Egianus Kogoya, who said that it would release Mehrtens until the Indonesian government acknowledged Papua’s independence.
In comments given to both Reuters and ABC, Sambom said that he had been in touch with Kagoya, who had agreed to release the 38-year-old “for the sake of humanity.”
Since the abduction, the Indonesian military has made several unsuccessful attempts to rescue Mehrtens, who is being held in a rugged and remote part of the highlands. The rebel group has released periodic photos and videos of Mehrtens, who appears to have been treated tolerably well.
While the announcement is good news for Mehrtens and his family, whether it eventuates on the given timeline remains to be seen. Back in February, the TPNPB said that it was ready to release the New Zealander, though he was never let go. At the time, there was some speculation that different factions of the TPNPB disagreed on whether or not to give up their hostage and that Kagoya had effectively decided not to obey the order to release him.
Indeed, according to the ABC report, a separate video of Kogoya has been circulated by pro-independence activists in recent days, in which the rebel leader “does not mention anything about a planned hostage release” and urges others “not to create rumors about the situation.” In any event, the killing of his compatriot in Alama yesterday is a reminder of just how close Mehrtens came to meeting a similar fate, and of the dangers that likely still face him.