TOKYO (AP) — Heavy rain pounded Japan’s northcentral region of Noto on Saturday which triggered landslides and swollen rivers to overflow, flooding homes and stranding some residents in the region still recovering from a deadly earthquake earlier this year.
The Japan Meteorological Agency issued the highest level of heavy rain across several cities in the Ishikawa prefecture, including the worst-hit Wajima where authorities said one person was missing.
At least 12 rivers in Ishikawa breached their banks as of late Saturday morning, according to the Land and Infrastructure Ministry. Residents were urged to use maximum caution against possible mudslides and building damage.
Up to 20 centimeters (7.8 inches) of rainfall is predicted in the region within the next 24 hours through Sunday noon, due to the rainbands that cause torrential rain above the Hokuriku region, JMA said.
“Heavy rain is hitting the region that had been badly damaged by the Noto earthquake, and I believe many people are feeling very uneasy," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi.
Hayashi said the government “puts people's lives first” and its priority was search and rescue operations. He also called on the residents to pay close attention to the latest weather and evacuation advisories and take precautions early, adding that the Self Defense Force troops have been dispatched to Ishikawa to join rescue efforts.
So far, there have been no reports of injuries from the heavy rain. But many homes were flooded and some residents in two districts in Wajima have been stranded following landslides, according to the prefecture. A number of roads flooded by muddy water were also blocked. Hokuriku Electric Power Co. said about 6,500 homes were without power.
Heavy rain also fell in nearby northern prefectures of Niigata and Yamagata, threatening flooding and other damages, officials said.
A 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck the region on Jan. 1, killing more than 370 people and damaging roads and other key infrastructure. Its aftermath still affects the local industry, economy and daily lives.
A road is flooded after heavy rain in Wajima, Ishikawa prefecture, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (Kyodo News via AP)
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The New Zealand pilot who’s been held hostage for more than a year in the restive Papua region has been freed by separatist rebels, Indonesian authorities said Saturday.
Phillip Mark Mehrtens, a 38-year-old pilot from Christchurch who was working for Indonesian aviation company Susi Air, was handed over to the Cartenz Peace Taskforce, the joint security force set up by the Indonesian government to deal with separatist groups in Papua, after he was allowed to walk free early Saturday, said the taskforce spokesperson Bayu Suseno.
“We managed to pick him up in good health” in the Yuguru village of Nduga district, Suseno said, adding that Mehrtens was flown to the mining town Timika for further health and psychological examination.
Independence fighters led by Egianus Kogoya, a regional commander in the Free Papua Movement, stormed a single-engine plane on a small runway in Paro and abducted Mehrtens on Feb. 7, 2023.
Rebels have used violence to try to achieve independence amid the deteriorating security situation in Indonesia’s easternmost region of Papua, 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 under a United Nations-sponsored ballot that was widely seen as a sham. Since then, a low-level insurgency has simmered in the region. Conflict spiked in the past year, with dozens of rebels, security forces and civilians killed.
Kogoya initially said the rebels would not release Mehrtens unless Indonesia’s government allows Papua to become a sovereign country.
Then on Tuesday, leaders of the West Papua Liberation Army, the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement known as TPNPB, issued a proposal for freeing Mehrtens that outlined terms including news media involvement in his release.
Suseno said that Mehrtens’ release was the result of hard work from a small task force team that had been communicating with the separatists led by Kogoya through the local church and community leaders, as well as youth figures.
“This is incredibly good news,” said Suseno in a video statement. “Effort to free the pilot by soft approach resulted in a hostage release without any casualties both from security forces, civilians or the pilot himself.”
New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters confirmed Mehrtens’ release after 592 days in captivity.
“We are pleased and relieved to confirm that Phillip Mehrtens is safe and well and has been able to talk with his family,” Peters said in a written statement Saturday. “This news must be an enormous relief for his friends and loved ones.”
Peters said a wide range of New Zealand government agencies had been working with Indonesian authorities and others to secure the release for the past 19 1/2 months. Officials were also supporting Mehrtens’ family, Peters said.
Many news outlets showed “cooperation and restraint” in reporting the story, he added.
“The case has taken a toll on the Mehrtens family, who have asked for privacy,” Peters said. “We ask media outlets to respect their wishes and therefore we have no further comment at this stage.”
New Zealand news outlets reported during Mehrtens’ captivity that he was one of a number of expatriate pilots employed by Susi Air and in recent years lived in Bali with his family.
Mehrtens, who was 37 when he was kidnapped, was originally from the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, and trained as a pilot in his home country, according to the news outlets Stuff and the New Zealand Herald.
“We’ve got him free,” Peters told reporters Saturday in Auckland, New Zealand. The development was an “enormous relief," he said.
Mehrtens was in Timika, Papua, Peters said, but would travel to Jakarta “very very soon to be reunited with his family.”
Peters had not spoken to Mehrtens since his release. The news was “one of the better stories I’ve had” in his 45 years as a lawmaker, the three-time foreign minister added.
He declined to give details about how the pilot was freed. It was a “tricky” environment and building trust had been the most difficult aspect of securing the New Zealander’s release, Peters said.
“It was quite nerve-wracking, holding our nerve and not getting too carried away, not doing anything that might imperil the chances,” he said. “Because there was always a concern of ours that we might not succeed.”
Indonesia President Joko Widodo congratulated the Indonesian military and police who helped free the pilot by prioritizing persuasion and safety.
“This was through a very long negotiation process and our patience not to do it repressively," Widodo said.
In April 2023, armed separatists attacked Indonesian troops who were deployed to rescue Mehrtens, killing at least six soldiers.
In August, gunmen stormed a helicopter and killed its New Zealand pilot, Glen Malcolm Conning, after it landed in Alama, a remote village in the Mimika district of Central Papua province. No one has claimed responsibility for that attack, and the rebels and Indonesian authorities have blamed each other.
In 1996, the Free Papua Movement abducted 26 members of a World Wildlife Fund research mission in Mapenduma. Two kidnapped Indonesians were killed by their abductors. The remaining hostages were freed within five months.
Graham-McLay reported from Wellington, New Zealand.
This story has been updated with the correct spelling of the pilot's first name. It's Phillip, not Philip.
FILE - Police guard a hospital where workers threatened by Papuan rebels were brought for medical examinations in Mimika, Papua province, Indonesia, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023. Security forces evacuated the workers from an area where they were searching for a New Zealand pilot taken hostage by separatist rebels of the West Papua Liberation Army. (AP Photo/Saldi Hermanto, File)
FILE - New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters comments during an interview with The Associated Press in his parliamentary office in the capital, Wellington, Thursday, Aug. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark Tantrum, File)
In this photo released by Cartenz Peace Task Force (Satgas Damai Cartenz) of the Indonesian security forces, New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens, left, who was held hostage for more than a year in the restive Papua region, sits with police officers after his release, in Timika, Papua province, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (Satgas Damai Cartenz via AP)
In this photo released by Cartenz Peace Task Force (Satgas Damai Cartenz) of the Indonesian security forces, New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens, who was held hostage for more than a year in the restive Papua region, sits after his release, in Timika, Papua province, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (Satgas Damai Cartenz via AP)
In this photo released by Cartenz Peace Task Force (Satgas Damai Cartenz) of the Indonesian security forces, New Zealand pilot Phillip Mehrtens, left, who was held hostage for more than a year in the restive Papua region, sits with a police officers after his release, in Timika, Papua province, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024. (Satgas Damai Cartenz via AP)
