Separatist rebels in Indonesia’s easternmost region of Papua killed a helicopter pilot from New Zealand, police have said, adding that four passengers onboard the aircraft were safe.
Glen Malcolm Conning, a pilot for Indonesian aviation company PT Intan Angkasa Air Service, was shot to death, said Faizal Ramadhani, a national police member and head of the joint security peace force in Papua. The gunmen were allegedly with the West Papua Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement, Ramadhani said.
Conning was shot after landing in Alama, a remote village in central Papua province. Ramadhani said the gunmen released the Indigenous Papuan passengers and set fire to the aircraft.
“All passengers were safe because they were local residents of Alama village,” said Ramadhani, adding that the village is in a mountainous district that can be reached only by helicopter. A joint security force was deployed to search for the attackers, who ran into the dense jungle.
New Zealand’s foreign ministry and its embassy in Jakarta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The shooting came almost 18 months after the abduction of another pilot from New Zealand, Phillip Mehrtens, who remains in captivity. Police said the same rebel group was responsible in both cases.
The rebel West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) said it had not received a report of the incident cited by police and could not immediately confirm the killing of the pilot on Monday.
A low-level battle for independence from Indonesia has raged in the resource-rich western half of Papua, where attacks by separatist fighters have grown deadlier and more frequent as they have procured better weaponry. The Indonesian military has also been accused of torturing and killing Papuan civilians.
A spokesperson for the TPNPB said on Saturday that it had agreed to free Mehrtens, who was kidnapped on 7 February last year after he landed a small commercial plane in the remote, mountainous area of Nduga.
The New Zealand government has repeatedly called for the pilot’s immediate release. The TPNPB has released videos of Mehrtens multiple times, seeking mediation in talks, including one with him surrounded by Papuan fighters.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report