West Papua

Phillip Mark Mehrtens, a 38-year-old pilot from New Zealand, was abducted by rebels from a remote airport in February 2023.

The report came as a separatist group said it was willing to release another pilot from New Zealand who was abducted in February 2023.

The gunmen then released the Indigenous Papuan passengers and set fire to the plane.

According to one resources analyst, large-scale deforestation appears to be shrinking compared to the past.

In the restive eastern province, Cold War realpolitik continues to reverberate.

As the world closely watches Gaza and Ukraine, a source reaches out from another enclosed area of prolonged armed conflict: West Papua.

West Papua’s independence movement again failed to obtain MSG membership, highlighting members’ competing strategic interests. 

A New Zealand pilot’s abduction focuses attention on Wellington and Canberra’s hands-off approach to the long-running conflict in Indonesia. 

The pilot was taken after landing a small plane with five passengers, intent on evacuating 15 workers building a health center that had earlier been threatened by separatist rebels.

The past few years have seen growing numbers of violent incidents in the eastern region, home to a long-running separatist insurgency.

A longtime proponent of non-violence, Filep Karma spent years calling for "a dignified dialogue with the Indonesian government."

Six elite troops have been arrested and accused of involvement in the killing of four indigenous Papuans.