Indonesian police say Mehrtens has been flown out of mountainous Nduga and looks in excellent well being.New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens has been freed through rebels in Indonesia’s stricken jap area of Papua 19 months after he was once abducted.
“As of late, we now have picked up pilot Phillip, who’s in excellent well being, and we flew him from Nduga to Timika,” Faizal Ramadhani, head of a unique unit shaped to take care of the warfare in Papua, stated in a observation on Saturday. Mehrtens is present process additional well being assessments and a physiological exam, Indonesian police added.
Opponents from the West Papua Nationwide Liberation Military (TPNPB) snatched Mehrtens on February 7 final yr after he landed his small industrial aircraft within the faraway, mountainous house of Nduga.
They stated they’d simplest loose him if Indonesia gave Papua its independence.
The New Zealand govt stated Mehrtens was once doing neatly and had spoken to his circle of relatives.
“We’re happy and relieved to verify that Phillip Mehrtens is secure and neatly and has been ready to speak along with his circle of relatives,” Overseas Minister Winston Peters stated.
“This information will have to be a huge aid for his buddies and family members.”
The Indigenous other people of Papua, who’re ethnically Melanesian, were preventing for independence from Indonesia because the territory was once integrated into the rustic following a arguable referendum subsidized through the United International locations.
New Zealand media reported previous this week that the rebels had proposed new phrases for Mehrtens’s unencumber.
Indonesian police stated they’d cling a information convention on Mehrtens’s unencumber in a while Saturday.
