JAYAPURA: On Monday ( August 6), gunmen stormed a plane and killed its New Zealand captain in the restive Papua area of Indonesia.
The militants who were reportedly from the West Papua Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement, also , released two health workers and two kids the plane was carrying, authorities said.
According to Faizal Ramadhani, a federal police officer who leads the shared security peace power in Papua, Glen Malcolm Conning, a captain for Indonesian aerospace company PT Intan Angkasa Air Service, was shot dead by gunmen after takeoff in Alama, a remote town in Mimika district of Central Papua province.
He claimed that the gunmen reportedly opened fire on the plane while releasing the aboriginal Papuan people.
Because Alama Village’s residents are local residents, all passengers were healthy, according to Ramadhani, who added that the community is located in a rocky area that helicopters cannot access. The attackers, who had fled into the deep jungle, were discovered by a mutual security team.
Sebby Sambom, a spokesperson for the West Papua Liberation Army, claimed to have not heard from any local militants about the shooting.
However, Sambom said,” He was responsible for entering our forbidden territory,” adding that” we have repeatedly issued warnings that the area falls under our limited zone, an armed conflict area that no human aircraft can get on.”
Sambom demanded that Indonesian government suspend all Papua development until the government agreed to negotiate with the rebels, and that “anyone who disobeys, they may bear the risk themselves.”