“We have said to stop all flights into the war zones and that there should not be development activities there,” Sambon said. “So please take your development projects back to Jakarta. The war zones are Ndugama,Intan Jaya,Puncak Papua,Puncak Jaya,Maybrat and Pegunungan Bintang.
“All immigrants[Indonesians] should immediately leave the war zones.”
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Papua police spokesperson Ignatius Benny Ady Prabowo said soldiers and police were searching for the pilot and passengers.
But he also pointed out that there had been no proof provided that Mehrtens was being held hostage and made clear that he regarded any statement by the rebel group as “non-official”.
“We need to get information from witnesses who saw what happened,” he said. “We are committed to find him as soon as possible and we hope we will him in a good condition.”
Mehrtens was flying for Indonesian aviation company Susi Air,a company he first worked with after finishing flight school,before he returned to New Zealand in 2016,a fellow pilot and former colleague said.
The pilot said Mehrtens grew up in Christchurch and trained at the International Aviation Academy at Christchurch Airport.
Mehrtens then worked overseas for eight years and married in 2012,before moving to Auckland with his wife and son in 2016 to fly for Jetstar Airways.
Three years later,Mehrtens and his family moved to Hong Kong,where he flew for Cathay Dragon,a subsidiary of Cathay Pacific that ceased operations in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mehrtens went back to Susi Air,flying “dangerous pathways” that used short runways on steep hills,his former colleague said.
“It shows how much of a family person he is,putting himself at risk to earn money to support his family,” he said.
“Phil is the nicest guy,he genuinely is – no one ever had anything bad to say about him.”
Speaking at a news conference in Wellington on Wednesday,New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said that consular support was being provided but declined to provide further details.
“You’ll be familiar with the fact that in these kinds of cases,we keep our public comments on that to be a minimum. The New Zealand embassy in Jakarta is leading the New Zealand government’s response on this issue,” he said.
The plane was carrying about 450 kilograms of supplies from an airport in Timika,a mining town in neighbouring Mimika district.
Conflicts between indigenous Papuans and Indonesian security forces are common in the impoverished region,a former Dutch colony in the western part of New Guinea that is ethnically and culturally distinct from much of Indonesia.
Papua was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 after a UN-sponsored ballot that was widely seen as a sham. Since then,a low-level insurgency has simmered in the mineral-rich region,which was divided into two provinces,Papua and West Papua.
The region was last year split further with three new provinces – Central Papua,Highland Papua and South Papua – added to make five in total.
with Stuff.co.nz,Reuters and AP