Papua separatists kill American pilot in ‘message’ to US and Indonesia | West Papua
Separatist rebels in Indonesia’s restive eastern region of Papua shot dead an American pilot and set fire to a civilian plane in what a spokesman for a local militant group described as a “message” to the US and Indonesian governments.
West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) spokesman Sebby Sambom named the pilot as Nicholas F. Gosselin and said separatist fighters set fire to his plane after it landed in Papua Province’s Yahukimo district.
He claimed that the aircraft “frequently shot down Indonesian military personnel and violated the TPNPB’s ultimatum.”
A low-level war of independence from Indonesia has long been ongoing in the resource-rich western half of Papua; Here, attacks by independence fighters are becoming deadlier and more frequent as they acquire better weapons.
Yusuf Sutejo, spokesman for Indonesia’s joint police-military operations in Papua, confirmed that a plane with an American pilot carrying seven passengers was found burned at an airport in Yahukimo, but could not confirm whether the plane was attacked by rebels or whether the pilot was killed. He said all the passengers were Papuans.
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Why is there unrest in West Papua?
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The Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua share an island with Papua New Guinea, and its indigenous population has been engaged in a low-level insurgency with Indonesia for nearly half a century.
Following the departure of the Dutch colonists and the conflict between the Papuans, the Netherlands, and Indonesia, the United Nations sponsored an agreement appointing Indonesia as interim administrator.
In 1969, a UN resolution approved the so-called “Law of Free Choice”; this was a referendum in which 1,026 West Papuans voted to remain in Indonesia but was repeatedly rejected by international observers as unrepresentative and under pressure.
Indonesia maintains that the territories have always belonged to Indonesia and that the decision merely confirms its sovereignty.
A guerrilla separatist movement grew and violence has continued ever since; More than half a million West Papuans were allegedly killed, countless arrested and injured, and villages destroyed. Indonesia is regularly accused of human rights abuses, which it denies.
In recent years, the West Papuan cause has received increasing support from regional neighbors including Vanuatu, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands, but in 2017 an independence petition signed by 1.8 million West Papuans and smuggled from the country to the UN’s decolonization committee was rejected as outside its remit.
Sebby said the attack in Yahukimo’s Balinggama district was a message to Indonesia and the US government that “they have failed to address the root causes of the conflict between the Indonesian military and the West Papua National Liberation Army in Papua.” He said the rebels would start launching attacks if Indonesia continued to allow civilian aircraft into rebel-controlled Papuan red zones.
Rebels carried guns and axes and raised the Morning Star flag, a symbol of independence, as they announced the attack, according to a video posted by TPNPB.
The US embassy in Jakarta did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Indonesia’s transport ministry said the plane was carrying a pilot and seven passengers and was flying from Wamena, another city in Highland Papua, to Yahukimo.
It was stated that communication was lost after the plane landed. The plane is owned by airline operator PT AMA, whose planes carry food, fuel and mail to remote villages in Papua, according to its website. PT AMA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In February 2023, Papuan rebels kidnapped New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens, who landed a small commercial plane in the remote, mountainous Nduga region in the Papu Territory. They released him in September 2024.
