Captain Phillip Mehrtens, 37, became as soon as kidnapped by the West Papua Nationwide Liberation Military fighters (TPNPB) quickly after he landed a Susi Air commercial plane within the mountainous home of Nduga.
The TPNPB — the armed wing of the Free Papua Trail — has claimed of conducting several attacks with a plan to free Papua from Indonesia.
The Indonesian government has labelled the neighborhood as a terrorist organisation.
The warning came in a new video released by the neighborhood on Friday, which exhibits Mehrtens preserving the banned ‘Morning Celebrity’ flag — a image of Papuan independence, Sky Records reported.
The pilot says that separatists desire international locations rather then Indonesia to have interaction in dialogue on Papuan independence.
“If it does not happen within two months then they are saying they’ll shoot me,” the pilot is quoted as asserting.
Neither the Indonesian government or the New Zealand Embassy in Jakarta be pleased replied to the video.
Beforehand, the Indonesian government had acknowledged that they had been attempting to barter the pilot’s liberate, nonetheless be pleased didn’t attain so since gain entry to to the intention is slightly refined.
The pilot became as soon as serving to within the evacuation of 15 building staff who had been threatened with loss of life whereas building a health centre within the far-off district.
While the staff had been released because of the they had been from Papua, Merthens, at the initiating from Christchurch, became as soon as taken hostage by the rebels.
West Papua is Indonesia’s easternmost territory. It’s miles the western half of New Guinea, the enviornment’s 2nd largest island after Greenland, with Papua New Guinea (PNG) comprising the japanese half, stories the BBC.
PNG became as soon as granted independence from Australia in 1975.
West Papua has had a definite self sustaining build of residing since 2001. Since June 2022, it has been divided into five provinces.
The useful resource-rich home entails the enviornment’s largest mine, as neatly as broad sources of , minerals, timber and palm oil.
–IANS