New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens has been freed after more than 18 months in captivity in Indonesia’s Papua, the foreign minister said

New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens has been freed after more than 18 months in captivity in Indonesia’s troubled Papua region, according to a statement from Wellington’s foreign minister on Saturday.

“We are delighted and relieved to confirm that Phillip Mehrtens is safe and well and has been able to speak to his family. This news must come as a tremendous relief to his friends and loved ones,” Winston Peters said in a statement.

An armed faction of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) kidnapped Mehrtens on 7 February 2023 after he landed a small commercial plane in the remote mountainous area of ​​Nduga.

By holding Mehrtens, his captors hoped to pressure New Zealand into lobbying Indonesia to allow Papua to secede from Indonesia – a seemingly impossible demand.

Peters said his ministry, with staff in both Indonesia and Wellington, led a “sustained whole-of-government effort to secure the release of Phillip Mehrtens”.

He added that the family has requested confidentiality and said no further comment would be issued at this time.

The armed pro-independence fighters are led by Egianus Kogeya, a member of the TPNPB, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement. They initially threatened to kill the New Zealander if his country did not heed their demand for secession.

The TPNPB is designated by the Indonesian government as a terrorist organization and has taken hostages in the past to further its cause.

Papua, a resource-rich former Dutch colony, was officially absorbed into Indonesia following a controversial referendum in 1969. Supporters of Papuan independence say the vote was neither free nor fair.

Since his capture last year, grainy evidence-of-life videos have shown Mehrtens increasingly gaunt and unkempt. Most often he appears surrounded by fighters with weapons, bows and arrows.

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