{"id":3038,"date":"2023-02-14T11:42:17","date_gmt":"2023-02-13T22:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=3038"},"modified":"2023-02-14T11:42:17","modified_gmt":"2023-02-13T22:42:17","slug":"rebel-group-in-papua-says-kidnapped-nz-pilot-safe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=3038","title":{"rendered":"Rebel group in Papua says kidnapped NZ pilot safe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A rebel group in Indonesia&#8217;s Papua Province who abducted New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens says he is safe.<\/p>\n<p>The New Zealander, who worked as a pilot in the area, was kidnapped\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rnz.co.nz\/national\/programmes\/morningreport\/audio\/2018876804\/nz-pilot-taken-hostage-in-indonesia\">by the West Papua Liberation Army<\/a>\u00a0last week.<\/p>\n<p>Spokesperson for the group, Sebby Sambom, told\u00a0<i>RNZ Pacific\u00a0<\/i>it continues to demand negotiations from the New Zealand government for the release of pilot Phillip Mehrtens.<\/p>\n<p>He said they would not harm the New Zealander.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He is safe with our boys in the field, and everything is ok. He&#8217;s staying with our friends and family at the &#8230; headquarters. He has good skills, and we will look after him and he will train our soldiers for how to fly an aircraft.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He said the rebel fighters are waiting for a response from the New Zealand government to negotiate the release of Phillip Mehrtens.<\/p>\n<p>Sambom justified the kidnapping, accusing the New Zealand government of supplying weapons to Indonesia.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our demand is clear, they support Indonesia supply firearms &#8230; and also they train Indonesia military\/police to &#8230; for the last.. So, we need to talk with the New Zealand government face-to-face.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Sambom dismissed reports that five other people are being held hostage.<\/p>\n<p>Source: RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A rebel group in Indonesia&#8217;s Papua Province who abducted New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens says he is safe. The New Zealander, who worked as a pilot in the area, was kidnapped\u00a0by the West Papua Liberation Army\u00a0last week. Spokesperson for the group, Sebby Sambom, told\u00a0RNZ Pacific\u00a0it continues to demand negotiations from the New Zealand government for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3039,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3038"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3040,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3038\/revisions\/3040"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}