An Australian journalist who knows the Papuan separatists and has been held hostage himself says that Kiwi pilot Phillip Mehrtens is doing everything possible to be released. NADINE ROBERTS reports.
It was 2004 in Iraq and Australian freelancer John Martinkus was facing the biggest challenge of his life.
Martinkus was a seasoned reporter – he had lived in East Timor during the struggle for independence and had traveled to Iraq to follow the war with the United States after the 9/11 terror.
But he was now fighting for his life after being held hostage outside a hotel in Baghdad by Iraqi Sunni militants and ex-Iraqi army officers.
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Instinctively, he knew he had to appease his captors. With the help of a translator, he searched for common grounds.
Martinkus sympathized with the hostage takers. He spoke of his many reports on the fallout from the US occupation of Iraq, including the arbitrary arrests and human rights violations he claimed to have witnessed.
He was also realistic.
He knew that the Australian government would not pay a ransom for his release, and neither would the publishers he worked for.
“I just flat out told them nobody is going to pay you money for this and if it doesn’t work politically you might as well let me go,” he says.
“And they did.”
John Martinkus/Delivered
Journalist John Martinkus, pictured, believes Kiwi pilot Phillip Mehrtens is doing everything he can to survive.
Fast-forward to Feb. 7, and Martinkus believes Christchurch-born Mehrtens is doing “everything right” to be released after being held hostage in West Papua on Feb. 7.
From reviewing the footage and photos that have been released, Martinkus believes that Mehrtens, who speaks fluent Indonesian, already identifies with his captors’ motivations.
The footage he refers to shows Mehrtens speaking about West Papua’s struggle for independence.
Martinkus believes showing “some sort of” rapport or empathy with the hostage-takers’ case makes it less likely that Mehrtens will be mistreated – while increasing the likelihood that he will be safely released.
What he is more concerned about, however, is how the Indonesian military will respond.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade says Mehrtens’ welfare is the ministry’s top priority.
“We are working closely with the Indonesian authorities to ensure the safe release of the New Zealander.
“We are doing everything we can, including the deployment of New Zealand consular staff, to ensure the safe release of the hostage.”
The ministry supports Mehrtens’ family, both in New Zealand and Indonesia, the spokesman said.
DELIVERED
Mehrtens is being held by separatists who have taken him hostage in West Papua.
By all accounts, Mehrtens is a hard-working pilot, with a family in Bali, who cares deeply about the people of Indonesia.
He was well versed in flying in the Papuan highlands, but had no idea that he would be confiscated to be used as a pawn within minutes of landing. by the liberation of West Papua Army.
A frustrated friend has appealed to the separatists’ humanity, saying that Mehrtens is a “kind and gentle man” who has honestly worked to help the people of Papua.
But Martinkus says political tensions run deep. This isn’t about money or guns – it’s about an intergenerational group feeling frustrated and angry.
Delivered
This photo of Mehrtens after he was taken hostage has been shared around the world.
And he should know.
Decades after covering the conflict in East Timor that eventually led to independence, Martinkus knows exactly what Mehrtens’ hostage-takers want.
He has seen the independence movement grow and flourish since East Timor’s success, but he also knows that the Indonesian government will never give up the province.
East Timor was relatively resource-poor, but West Papua has a $100 billion gold mine that provides a huge tax source.
Matinkus believes this will pave the way for how the Indonesian government and militias deal with Mehrtens.
He fears that the government, unlike East Timor, wants to keep West Papua at all costs.
Delivered
Photos of Mehrtens showing empathy for the West Papua cause are a good sign, Martinkus says.
The seeds of a rebel resistance began in 1969 when there was widespread resistance to Indonesian rule in West Papua province, leading the United Nations to oversee an independence referendum.
Dubbed the Act of Free Choice, it was soon labeled the Act of No Choice after the Indonesian military selected 1,026 indigenous leaders as the only ones allowed to vote on independence.
The chieftains voted to stay with Indonesia, but journalists discovered that they and their families were bribed and threatened not to vote for independence.
The independence issue has simmered ever since and Martinkus believes it has been reborn in the children who now lead the West Papua Liberation Army.
The difference now is that the rebel guerrillas are well equipped compared to 20 years ago.
Whatever the outcome, Martinkus does not believe it will be a good outcome for Mehrtens, based on a failed attempt by the Indonesian military to free hostages held by the Free Papua Movement in Mapenduma in 1996. Two of the nine hostages were killed when Indonesian Army Special Forces controversially chose to handle the situation by force.
Martinkus has met many senior officials of the Indonesian army in East Timor and knows how they operate. He believes they have a modus operandi of acting by force rather than bargaining, and believes they feel betrayed by the government’s withdrawal from East Timor.
He is sure that those same officials will not want to make the same concession twice, and believes that a soft approach does not fit their mentality.
“When they attack a village, they destroy a village,” he recalls his time in East Timor. “They burned down houses and raped women. I fear that because that generation of officers has behaved this way in the past, not just in Papua, but in at least two other conflicts, they will return to type and do it again.
Delivered
Mehrtens’ plane was set on fire by separatists who saw an opportunity to draw international attention to their plight.
Behind all the negotiations is a New Zealand government that supports Indonesia through combined military operations. Negotiations remain delicate, but Martinkus believes that if either the New Zealand or Australian government chooses to temporarily suspend military exercises with Indonesia, Mehrtens has a chance of being released.
Ultimately, he says, the separatists want the United Nations to hold a supervised independence vote — and they want it now.
What he fears most is that Mehrtens will be forgotten in the coming months, as will Pole Jakub Skrypski, who is serving a life sentence for treason for visiting Papua as a tourist in 2018.
“No one talks about him anymore. My fear is that Mehrtens will end up the same.