There are fears of yet another escalation in military conflict in Indonesia’s Papua region after an American pilot flying a small aircraft into a remote airstrip in Highland Papua province was killed by West Papuan militants.
The West Papua National Liberation Army, or TPNPB, has claimed responsibility for killing Nicholas F Gosselin after he landed a small aircraft in remote Sobaham District, Yahukimo Regency on Thursday.
Gosselin had just flown seven passengers to Yahukimo from Wamena, Highland Papua’s major town, in an aircraft which belonged to a small Indonesian airline, PT AMA. The militants also burned the plane.
The West Papua National Liberation Army, or TPNPB, has claimed responsibility for killing Nicholas F Gosselin after he landed a small aircraft in remote Sobaham District, Yahukimo Regency on Thursday.
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Warning
The TPNPB has repeatedly warned foreigners not to fly into the region if they were working with Indonesia’s military, who it is in a long running conflict with.
Eneko Bahabol, a human rights defender with the Papua Council of Churches who works in this remote region, said the other people on board were local Papuan villagers. He said they were understood to have escaped without injury.
He said it is widely known that Indonesia’s military relied on small airlines in order to fly into remote airstrips in Papua’s interior, where its bigger planes cannot land.
“We have seen the call from the TPNPB not to transport military personnel. We have followed this in every one of their releases, but we see that the companies and the pilots do not listen to it, and this applies to all pilots transporting military personnel,” Bahabol said.
However, this is not the first case of the TPNPB burning planes which have flown into the highlands region, nor of targeting pilots.
In February 2023, the TPNPB kidnapped a New Zealand pilot, Phillip Mehrtens, after he landed a small plane belonging to commercial airline Susi Air in Nduga Regency of Highland Papua. They freed him nineteen months later.
The Indonesian military has reportedly denied that the AMA plane attacked on Thursday was used to carry troops.
The militants also burned the plane.
Screengrab / Supplied
Fears of more violence
Bahabol said civilians in Sobaham’s Balinggama village have fled to neighbouring districts because they are afraid there will be a military operation in response to the attack.
Indonesia has been increasing its troop deployments to Papua region to the extent that it has at least six times more military per capita in Papua than any other region in Indonesia.
This comes amid an upsurge in violent incidents in recent months in Highland Papua related to the long running conflict between Indonesia’s security forces and the TPNPB which have left many civilians dead or injured, and displaced thousands.
Bahabol said on behalf of the Papua Council of Churches, he urged both Indonesia’s military and the West Papuan militants to step back from violent conflict.
“Stop the military operations because they do not solve the problem. I ask both parties to stop the conflict and pursue a dignified dialogue through international mechanisms,” he said.
Bahabol also urged a pause to “the use of civilian aircraft for military purposes”.
Meanwhile, he said it was expected that the pilot’s body could be evacuated Friday, depending on the weather, and the ability of Indonesian military and police to access the airstrip area.
Message
A spokesperson for the TPNPB, Sebby Sambom, said the killing was a message to the United States which brokered the New York Agreement which paved the way for the former Dutch New Guinea to fall under Indonesian control in the 1960s, without genuine consultation with Papuans.
“We also convey to the United States of American Government, through its embassy in Indonesia and to UN member states, that the shooting of the American pilot is pay for a mistake by the Indonesian, United States of America, Dutch Government,” Sambom said.
He said the message was also directed at the United Nations “for failing to address the root causes of the conflict in Papua between the Indonesian military and the West Papua National Liberation Army, which has been ongoing for 64th years”.
A spokesperson for the US State Department told RNZ Pacific they were aware that Indonesian authorities are investigating the reported death.
The spokesperson said they are in touch with the authorities and the man’s family, and are closely tracking developments, but had no further comment.
After an American man, Rick Spier, was violently killed in Papua in 2002 in a shooting attack that was investigated by the FBI, the US suspended some military assistance to Indonesia.
