JAYAPURA, Indonesia– Gunmen stormed a helicopter and killed its New Zealand pilot shortly after it landed in the restive Indonesian region of Papua on Monday, and freed two health workers and two children he was carrying, police said.
Glen Malcolm Conning, a pilot for the Indonesian aviation company PT Intan Angkasa Air Service, was shot dead by gunmen believed to be from the West Papua Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement, after landing in Alama, a remote village in the Mimika district. from Central Papua province, said Faizal Ramadhani, a member of the National Police who heads the joint security peacekeeping force in Papua.
He said the gunmen freed the indigenous Papuan passengers and set fire to the plane.
“All the passengers were safe because they were local residents of Alama village,” Ramadhani said, adding that the village is in a mountainous district that can only be reached by helicopter. A joint security force was deployed to search for the attackers, who fled into the dense jungle.
West Papua Liberation Army spokesman Sebby Sambom told The Associated Press that he had not received any reports from fighters on the ground about the killing.
“But, if that happens, it was their own fault for entering our prohibited territory,” Sambom said, “We have issued warnings several times that the area is within our restricted zone, an area of armed conflict where it is prohibited for any civil ground aircraft.”
Sambom called on Indonesian authorities to stop all development in Papua until the government is willing to negotiate with the rebels, and “if anyone disobeys, they must bear the risk.”
New Zealand’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it was aware of reports of the death and that the country’s embassy in Jakarta was seeking information from authorities. A spokesperson could not confirm any details.
Conflicts between indigenous Papuans and Indonesian security forces are common in the impoverished region of Papua, a former Dutch colony in western New Guinea that is ethnically and culturally distinct from much of Indonesia. The conflict has escalated in the past year, with dozens of rebels, security forces and civilians killed.
Monday’s killing was the latest act of violence against New Zealand citizens in the Papua region.
In February 2023, Egianus Kogoya, regional commander of the Free Papua Movement, kidnapped Philip Mark Mehrtensa pilot from Christchurch who worked for the Indonesian aviation company Susi Air.
Kogoya and his troops raided a single-engine plane shortly after it landed on a small airstrip in a mountain town. Planning to use the pilot to negotiateKogoya has said Mehrtens will not be released unless Indonesia liberates Papua as a sovereign country.
In 2020, seven PT Freeport Indonesia employees, including a New Zealand miner, Graeme Thomas Wall from Ngaruawahia, were attacked by armed men in a car park in the mining town of Tembagapura. Wall was shot in the chest and died.
Papua joined Indonesia in 1969 after a UN-sponsored vote that was widely seen as a sham. Since then, a low-level insurgency has simmered in the mineral-rich region, which is divided into six provinces.
Flying is the only practical way to access many areas of the easternmost mountainous provinces of Papua and West Papua.
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Karmini reported from Jakarta, Indonesia. Associated Press writer Charlotte Graham-McLay in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed to this report.
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