Niniek Karmini
Updated ,first published
Jakarta: Indonesian security forces on Friday recovered the body of an American pilot who was killed after armed separatists attacked and burnt a small aircraft in the restive Papua region, a military commander said.
Nicholas F. Goselin, a pilot for Indonesian aviation company PT AMA, was shot dead on Thursday, shortly after he landed at the Ipdeheik airstrip in Balinggama village of the Yahukimo regency in the mountainous province of Papua Highlands.
The evacuation of the village, which involved 10 personnel from the Habema Operations Command, was carried out after troops secured the remote airstrip in a rapid operation, according to Brigadier General Riyanto, deputy commander of the operation.
Rebels armed with guns and axes raised the Morning Star flag, a symbol of Papuan independence, as they claimed responsibility for the attack in a video distributed to the media by the West Papua Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement.
A decades-old insurgency in impoverished Papua between indigenous Papuans and Indonesian security forces has spiked in the past year, with dozens of rebels, security forces and civilians killed. The rebels have especially targeted foreign pilots.
Contact had been lost with the airstrip shortly after Goselin reported the plane landing. His plane had seven passengers, Indonesia’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation said in a statement.
There was no immediate comment from the US embassy.
Sebby Sambom, a spokesman for the rebels, said the plane violated the rebels’ ban on civilian flights in areas the separatist group considered its operational zones.
Sambom alleged that civilian aircraft had been used to transport Indonesian military personnel and logistics into Papua’s remote interior. He said Goselin was killed because the American pilot’s aircraft continued operating despite the group’s warning. The claims could not be independently verified.
The Indonesian military denied the plane was used to carry troops. Those on board were seven indigenous Papuan civilians, including three women. They were unharmed, the military said.
Sambom called on Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto to open international negotiations aimed at resolving the decades-long conflict in Papua, which separatists say has resulted in civilian deaths and mass displacement.
Sambom also urged the United Nations to facilitate talks involving the Indonesian government, the West Papua Liberation Army and Papuan representatives, and warned that the rebels would target other civilian aircraft they believed were assisting military operations in the region.
In February 2023, Egianus Kogoya, a regional commander in the Free Papua Movement, abducted Philip Mark Mehrtens, a pilot from Christchurch, New Zealand, who was working for Indonesian aviation company Susi Air. Mehrtens was freed in September 2024.
In August 2024, West Papuan gunmen stormed a helicopter and killed its pilot, New Zealander Glen Malcolm Conning, who worked for Indonesian aviation company PT Intan Angkasa Air Service. He was shot shortly after landing in a remote village in the Mimika district carrying several indigenous Papuans, who were freed.
Papua, a former Dutch colony, was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 under a United Nations-sponsored ballot that was widely seen as a sham, and it triggered the protracted conflict.
AP
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