The ULMWP is aware of reports that the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) has recently killed a New Zealand helicopter pilot named Glen Malcolm Conning in Alama, Mimika Regency. If true, I condemn this killing in the strongest possible terms. We mourn Conning’s death and do not want any more blood shed on West Papuan land.
However, the TPNPB have denied responsibility for the killing, stating that Indonesia disregarded their warnings and the civilian flight ban. According to our sources on the ground, Indonesia intentionally put this pilot in danger by allowing him to fly into the conflict zone. Indonesia have indirectly caused his death by continuing to breach the restricted zone in order to entrench their occupation of the Highlands.
West Papuans are a peaceful and welcoming people: we want foreigners to know the truth about what is happening in our country. That is why we have fought for a decade for a UN Human Rights visit to West Papua – the same visit Indonesia continues to deny.
While mourning Conning’s tragic death, the ULMWP welcomes the announcement by the TPNPB that they are ready to release detained New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens.
TPNPB spokesperson Sebby Sambom has stated that the faction led by Egianus Kogoya will free Mehrtens, although this might take two months. This is the right and humane thing to do. As I have said since his detention last February, the blood of an innocent man should not be shed on Papuan land. I have been personally working through private channels to ensure his release for over a year, and hope that Mehrtens will soon be able to return to his family.
The priority now is for all parties to work together to ensure Mehrtens’ safe and timely release. Indonesia must not interfere in the TPNPB’s plan or seek to use this announcement for their own gain. Safe passage, a reduction in the threatening presence of Indonesian troops, and logistical coordination is required.
Throughout Mehrtens’ detention, Indonesia has been consistently unwilling to use outside aid or peaceful negotiations to secure his release. As the West Papua Council of Churches made clear in their statement, Indonesia should have withdrawn its troops from Nduga, Intan Jaya and other impacted Regencies if they wished to create the conditions for his release. Instead, they have deployed more troops, repeatedly bombed Nduga, and ramped up their military occupation across the Highlands. They made life in the Highlands hell for Papuan civilians.
The occupier never wastes an opportunity. Since the kidnapping and Indonesia’s subsequent ‘combat alert’, there have been more arbitrary arrests, random killings, and mass displacement. This is in keeping with Indonesia’s strategy to expel the Papuan people and transform our land into a giant network of mines and plantations.
The world must be aware of the context surrounding this situation. Tens of thousands of West Papuans have been displaced and hundreds killed since Mehrtens was detained. Just as Indonesia has refused a diplomatic solution to his detention, they have also refused to allow the UN to investigate Human Rights in West Papua, and continued to refuse international journalists’ access. International law, democracy and transparency do not exist in West Papua.
The ULMWP mourns Conning’s death and sends our deepest condolences to his family. We do not want Indonesia to have another pretext to send yet more troops to West Papua. Our position remains the same: we are committed to our peaceful diplomatic strategy, to winning West Papuan liberation through international political fora.
Benny Wenda
President
ULMWP
