Authorities were investigating the incident and police and military personnel had been sent to the area to locate the pilot and five passengers.
In a statement seen by news agency Reuters, the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) claimed responsibility for the attack and threatened to hold the pilot hostage until the Indonesian government recognised West Papua’s independence.
The Australian reported the secessionist group had claimed the pilot was taken hostage “in retaliation for the support provided by Western nations — including Australia and New Zealand — to Indonesian security forces”.
West Papua is the name for the western portion of the island of New Guinea.
Sebby Sambom, a spokesman for the TPNPB armed wing, told The Australian the group had released all five passengers on board the flight but was holding the pilot and would kill him if its demands were not met.
“We want to convey that we have taken this pilot hostage and brought it to the TPNPB headquarters which is far from the airfield area,” he said, warning police and military not to carry out reprisal sweeps or make civilian arrests in the area.
“This pilot is a citizen of New Zealand. TPNPB considers New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia, America, Europe, all are responsible.”
The Susi Air plane landed safely early on Tuesday morning before it was attacked by rebel fighters.
Sambom said the fighters, led by group commander Egianus Kogeya, set fire to the plane and seized its pilot.
Conflicts between indigenous Papuans and Indonesian security forces are common in the impoverished Papua region, a former Dutch colony in the western part of New Guinea that is ethnically and culturally distinct from much of Indonesia. Papua was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 after a U.N.-sponsored ballot that was widely seen as a sham. Since then, a low-level insurgency has simmered in the mineral-rich region, which is divided into two provinces, Papua and West Papua.
- with AP
