JAKARTA: Jakarta and Wellington on Monday (September 23) denied claims by rebels in Indonesia’s troubled Papua area {that a} New Zealand pilot had been free of captivity over the weekend after receiving a cost from an area chief.
Phillip Mehrtens, 38, was launched on Saturday by the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) insurgency group after 19 months in captivity.
Sebby Sambom, a spokesman for the group, mentioned the Indonesian authorities had given cash to the appearing chief of the Papua district the place Mehrtens was freed, later accusing him of paying the rebels, with out offering proof.
“The Indonesian military and police gave bribes to Edison Gwijangge and his workforce,” he mentioned in a press release to AFP on Monday, referring to the appearing head of Nduga regency.
The funds then reached the rebels “via a household system,” Sambom mentioned.
“The TPNPB … handed the pilot over to Edison. Then Edison … handed the pilot over to the Indonesian navy and police.”
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters shortly denied any suggestion that Wellington was concerned in paying for Mehrtens’ launch, saying that it was diplomacy that had secured his freedom.
“I feel it is a shame, frankly, that anybody would even recommend {that a} bribe was paid – we do not pay ransoms, we do not pay bribes,” Peters informed Radio New Zealand on Monday.
“All the work that these individuals of every kind, together with officers, have finished, working as laborious as they’ll and as rigorously as they’ll, in order to not make errors or come off as offensive and derail issues, has now been thwarted by the bribery cost.”
