Indonesian security forces search for NZ pilot taken hostage

By ALFIAN KARTONO and NINIEK KARMINI
Associated Press

JAYAPURA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian security forces are searching for a pilot from New Zealand who was taken hostage by separatist rebels in restive Papua province. The soldiers and police searching for the pilot, Philip Mark Mehrtens, also managed Wednesday to rescue 15 construction workers who had been building a health center in the same remote village after separatist rebels threatened to kill them. Mehrtens was captured early Tuesday by independence fighters from the West Papua Liberation Army who stormed his single-engine plane shortly after it landed at the village’s small airport. The rebels say they released the five indigenous Papuan passengers and set fire to the plane.