Members of the military and police joint task force Cartenz lead an investigation at the site where New Zealand pilot Glen Malcolm Conning was killed on Aug 5. - AFP
JAKARTA: Human rights group Amnesty International Indonesia is calling on authorities to thoroughly investigate the killing of a New Zealand helicopter pilot in restive Central Papua earlier this week and bring the perpetrators to justice.
The pilot, Glen Malcolm Conning, was allegedly shot dead by armed rebels on Monday (Aug 5) after landing at an airstrip in Alama district in Central Papua province with four health workers and two children, all of whom survived, according to authorities.
Conning, a pilot for air cargo transportation company PT Intan Angkasa Air Service, flew the helicopter from Mozes Kilangin Airport in Timika, also in Central Papua.
“This unlawful killing is a grave breach of humanitarian international laws,” Amnesty Indonesia office executive director Usman Hamid said in a statement on Wednesday.
“It is imperative that those responsible for the unlawful killing are held accountable and that measures are taken to prevent such incidents in the future.”
The motive for Monday's killing was not immediately clear.
Four teams of police and military personnel from the Operation Cartenz Peace task force are now hunting the armed rebels behind the attack, while investigators from Timika Police were still collecting evidence and questioning witnesses as of Tuesday.
“We are committed to bringing justice to the victim and his family,” Cartenz spokesperson Adj Sr Comr Bayu Suseno said on Thursday.
The joint police-military Cartenz task force is a rebranding of Operation Nemangkawi, formed to counter Papua separatists in 2018.
Monday’s incident comes less than two years after another pilot from New Zealand, Phillip Mehrtens, was abducted by a faction of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) led by Egianus Kogoya in Nduga in the neighboring province of Papua Highlands, to the west of Central Papua. He remains in captivity with the TPNPB, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement (OPM).
TPNPB spokesperson Sebby Sambom has said he could not immediately confirm it was responsible for Monday’s killing but said the aircraft had entered the group’s prohibited area.
Amnesty’s Usman urged all parties involved in the prolonged conflict in Papua to avoid killing civilians, saying that deliberate targeting and killing of civilians was unacceptable.
Amnesty recorded at least five incidents of shootings targeting civilian aircraft allegedly by armed separatist groups in Papua between February to Aug 2 of this year.
Conflict between security forces and armed groups have simmered for decades in the country’s easternmost region, which remains among the most impoverished despite its rich mineral deposits, but tensions have escalated considerably since 2018, with pro-independence armed groups mounting deadlier and more frequent attacks.
Papuan people have long been suffering from the conflict, with Amnesty recording at least 130 alleged incidents of unlawful killings either by security forces or armed groups as a result of the conflicts between January 2018 and Aug 5 of this year.
While the government has been accused of taking a tough security approach that amounted to gross human rights violations, it has said it is shifting its stance in favour of development and welfare. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
