Jakarta and Wellington denied on Monday ( Sep 23 ) a claim made by rebels in Indonesia’s troubled region of Papua that a New Zealand pilot had been freed over the weekend after receiving payment from a local leader.
Phillip Mehrtens, 38, was released on Saturday by the West Papua National Liberation Army ( TPNPB) rebel group after 19 months in prison.
The Indonesian government, according to Sebby Sambom, a spokesman for the organization, accused the acting chief of paying Mehrtens ‘ rebels before providing proof that he had paid them.
In a speech to AFP on Monday, he said,” The Indian military and police gave pay money to Edison Gwijangge and his team,” referring to the standing head of the Nduga district.
The money finally landed with the insurgents” through a community system”, said Sambom.
” The TPNPB… handed over the captain to Edison. Therefore Edison… handed over the captain to the Indonesian military and police”.
Winston Peters, the foreign minister of New Zealand, swiftly refuted any claims that Wellington was paying for Mehrtens ‘ transfer, claiming that politics secured his freedom.
” I think this is a disgrace, frankly, that it’s even suggested that a bribe was paid – we do n’t pay ransoms, we do n’t pay bribes”, Peters told Radio New Zealand on Monday.
The incident of a reward has now trampled all the work that these people, including officials, do, working as hard as they can and slowly as they can, to avoid making a mistake, being disrespectful, and failing, etc.