Chilling video shows New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens taken hostage by bow and arrow rebels in remote Papua region
Chilling video has emerged of a New Zealand pilot who has been taken hostage by bow and arrow-wielding rebels in the remote Papua region of Indonesia.
Phillip Mehrtens, a pilot for Indonesian aviation company Susu Air, was kidnapped last week by the rebels, who stormed his single-engine plane shortly after it landed on a small runway in Paro in the remote Nduga district on February 7.
The separatist rebels from the West Papua Liberation Army, the armed wing of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), seized Mehrtens before setting fire to his plane on the runway.
Video has since emerged showing Mehrtens standing in a forest surrounded by a group of rebels who are armed with rifles, spears and bows and arrows.
Rebel leader Egianus Kogoya insisted that the pilot, from Christchurch, will not be released until the Papua region is made independent from Indonesia.
But the Indonesian government has stood firm and said Papua will ‘forever remain a legitimate part’ of Indonesia – raising doubts about when Mehrtens would be released.