Gunmen kill New Zealand helicopter pilot in another attack in Indonesia's restive Papua region

JAYAPURA: Gunmen stormed a helicopter and killed its New Zealand pilot shortly after it landed in Indonesia’s restive Papua region on Monday (Aug 5).

The gunmen who were allegedly from the West Papua Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement, also released two health workers and two children the helicopter was carrying, police said.

Glen Malcolm Conning, a pilot for Indonesian aviation company PT Intan Angkasa Air Service, was shot to death by the gunmen after landing in Alama, a remote village in Mimika district of Central Papua province, said Faizal Ramadhani, a National Police member who heads the joint security peace force in Papua.

He said the gunmen released the Indigenous Papuan passengers and set fire to the plane.

“All passengers were safe because they were local residents of Alama village,” said Ramadhani, adding that the village is in a mountainous district which can be reached only by helicopter. A joint security force was deployed to search for the attackers, who ran into the dense jungle.

The Cartenz Peace Taskforce, assembled to deal with separatists in Papua, retrieved his body from Alama and transported it to Timika city, it said in a statement.

"The body of the pilot has been evacuated from the Alama district to Timika and arrived at 12.50pm local time. The body is currently at the Mimika General Hospital for an autopsy," Cartenz spokesman Bayu Suseno said.

Mimika Police Head I Komang Budiartha told reporters on Monday that three helicopters had been dispatched to search for Conning's body.

West Papua Liberation Army spokesperson 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 his own fault for entering our forbidden territory,” Sambom said, “We have released warnings several times that the area is under our restricted zone, an armed conflict area that is prohibited for any civilian aircraft to land.”

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 themselves”.

New Zealand's foreign ministry said in a statement that it was aware of reports of the death and 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 Papua region, a former Dutch colony in the western part of New Guinea that is ethnically and culturally distinct from much of Indonesia. The conflict has spiked in the past year, with dozens of rebels, security forces and civilians killed.

Monday’s killing was the latest violence against New Zealand nationals in the Papua region.

In February 2023, Egianus Kogoya, a regional commander in the Free Papua Movement, abducted Philip Mark Mehrtens, a pilot from Christchurch who was working for Indonesian aviation company Susi Air.

Kogoya and his troops stormed a single-engine plane shortly after it landed on a small runway in a mountainous village. Planning to use the pilot to negotiate, Kogoya has said they will not release Mehrtens unless Indonesia frees Papua as a sovereign country.

In 2020, seven employees of PT Freeport Indonesia, including a New Zealand miner, Graeme Thomas Wall from Ngaruawahia, were attacked by gunmen in a parking area in Tembagapura mining town. Wall was shot in his chest and died.

Papua was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 after a United Nations-sponsored ballot 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 of accessing many areas in the mountainous easternmost provinces of Papua and West Papua.