Glen Malcolm Conning was shot lifeless after he landed his helicopter in a distant village, 19 months after one other pilot was taken captive.
Separatist fighters in Indonesia’s far jap area of Papua have shot lifeless a helicopter pilot from New Zealand, in keeping with police.
The rebels attacked the helicopter as quickly because it landed on Monday in Alama, a distant village within the Mimika district of Central Papua province, stated Faizal Ramadhani, who heads the joint safety peace pressure in Papua.
The attackers launched the 4 Indigenous Papuan passengers who had been on board the plane, operated by non-public aviation firm Intan Angkasa Air Service.
“It’s confirmed that there was a hostage scenario and homicide carried out by the armed prison group,” Ramadhani stated, naming the pilot as 50-year-old Glen Malcolm Conning.
The motive for the killing was not instantly clear. It comes practically 18 months after the abduction by separatists of one other pilot from New Zealand, Phillip Mehrtens, who stays a captive.
A spokesperson for New Zealand’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs stated it was conscious of the report and that its embassy in Jakarta was in search of info from authorities, declining to remark additional.
Conning was from Motueka within the north of New Zealand’s South Island and an skilled pilot, who had flown missions earlier this 12 months to battle bushfires close to Christchurch, The New Zealand Herald reported.
“[Glen] was enormously cherished by the Motueka neighborhood and was an excellent household man,” shut pal Kerry Gatenby advised the paper.
A battle for independence has been rumbling for many years in Papua, a resource-rich area that’s the location of one of many world’s largest gold and copper mines.
The battle has escalated since 2018 when separatist fighters attacked a gaggle engaged on a serious street venture, killing 19 Indonesian building employees.
Mehrtens was captured in February 2023 after fighters from the West Papua Nationwide Liberation Military (TPN-PB) ambushed a small industrial aircraft when it landed within the distant, mountainous area of Nduga. They stated they’d launch him solely when Papua bought its independence from Indonesia.
Police stated the TPN-PB had been additionally behind Monday’s assault. The group is the armed wing of the Free Papua Motion (OPM) and in 2021 was designated a “terrorist’ organisation by Indonesia.
TPN-PB spokesman Sebby Samborn advised information companies that he had not obtained studies from the group’s fighters in regards to the killing.
“However, if that occurs, it was his personal fault for coming into our forbidden territory,” Sambom was quoted as saying by the Related Press information company. “We now have launched warnings a number of occasions that the world is below our restricted zone, an armed battle space that’s prohibited for any civilian plane to land.”
Papua, whose individuals are ethnically and culturally distinct from Indonesia, occupies the western half of the island of New Guinea – simply 200km (124 miles) north of Australia – and shares a land border with Papua New Guinea (PNG).
A former Dutch colony, the territory was included into Indonesia in 1969 after a controversial United Nations-backed referendum during which solely about 1,000 Papuans had been capable of take part.