An Australian professor and three colleagues are believed to have been taken hostage in a remote area of Papua New Guinea (PNG).
According to reports, the Australian professor, a Papua New Guinean program coordinator and two graduates of the University of PNG were in the area doing a field study.
The Epoch Times has reached out to the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade for comment.
The Australian government has a policy of not paying ransoms or making concessions to groups who are regarded as terrorists, as it would contravene Australia’s anti-terrorism financing laws.
PNG Government Confident of Recovering Hostages
Papua New Guinean Prime Minister James Marape told reporters on Monday that the PNG government is currently having “running conversations” with the group that took the hostages.“I just want to inform the families of those taken hostage that we have been at work, and contact has been made with people in the bush,” he said.
“We’ve got police and military on standby to assist. But, in the first instance, we want those criminals to release those who are held in captivity.
“We have been keeping this under close wraps because of the sensitivity and the need for us to get our friends [who were] captured, get them alive and safe.”
Marape said that Christian missionaries who had been living in the area for a long period were acting as mediators with the kidnappers and had spoken to the Australian professor by satellite phone.
“This morning, there was positive news that they are alive and villagers on the ground who are not involved in these criminal activities; these villagers have also been assisting in negotiations to get them out,” he said.
“So I’m confident, I’m optimistic, I’m prayerful that we get … them out.”
Second Hostage-Taking Reported
The news of the hostage-taking comes less than two weeks after it was reported that a New Zealand pilot, Philip Mehrtens, was taken hostage by an armed separatist group, the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), in Indonesia’s Papua province.The group was classified as a terrorist group by the Indonesian government in 2021.
Mehrtens was kidnapped on Feb. 7 by TPNPB, after they stormed his commercial plane when it landed at Paro village in the Nduga. The armed group demanded that New Zealand’s government enter into face-to-face negotiations with them for the release of their pilot.
However, they have also said that Mehrtens would not be released until the Indonesian government recognizes Papuan sovereignty.
The plane, operated by Indonesian aviation company Susi Air, was carrying five passengers. The rebel group reportedly released the five indigenous Papuan passengers and set fire to the plane.
A spokesperson for the group, Sebby Sambom, said on Feb. 15 that Mehrtens is safe.
He said the group targeted New Zealand because it supplies Indonesia with weaponry and trains Indonesia’s military.
Hostages Part of TPNPB Peaceful Negotiations
ABC News reported that TPNPB wanted New Zealand to facilitate between the West Papuan separatists and Indonesia’s authorities while also involving the United Nations Security Council.Akouboo Amatus Douw, chairman of TPNPB’s diplomatic council, said the separatist group would formally send its demand to New Zealand and urged New Zealand to cease its assistance to Indonesia.
Douw said that Mehrtens will not be freed until their demands were fulfilled.
“Countries who are supporting and training the military and police in Indonesia must stop. More specifically, [that means] New Zealand and Australia,” Douw told the news outlet.
