TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
RI losses one of its best diplomats: Minister
Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi has conveyed her condolences on the passing of Indonesian Ambassador to Pakistan Burhan Muhammad in a hospital in Singapore early Tuesday"The Indonesian Foreign Ministry has lost one of its best diplomats today," the minister said during an early morning press briefing at the ministry office in Central Jakarta on Tuesday
Change Size
F
oreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi has conveyed her condolences on the passing of Indonesian Ambassador to Pakistan Burhan Muhammad in a hospital in Singapore early Tuesday
"The Indonesian Foreign Ministry has lost one of its best diplomats today," the minister said during an early morning press briefing at the ministry office in Central Jakarta on Tuesday.
Ambassador Burhan died after eight days of treatment in Singapore, following a helicopter crash in Pakistan that took the lives of his wife, Hery Listyawati Burhan, a few foreign envoys and Pakistani officials and crew.
The diplomat took his last breath and died at 12:50 a.m. local time after undergoing intensive treatment for severe burns at Singapore General Hospital. He was 58 years old.
"On behalf of the government, I would like to convey my deepest condolences for the loss of Ambassador Burhan, and hope that the family remains strong in this time of hardship," Retno said.
Ambassador Burhan left behind two teenage sons, who were with him throughout his hospitalization in Singapore since May 12. Burhan's brother and Indonesian envoy to Bahrain, Chilman Arisman, also were with him during his final days.
In Singapore, the former State Intelligence Agency (BIN) official received prompt treatment for burns to 70 percent of his body, sustained in a military helicopter crash in the Gilgit-Baltistan region in Pakistan's north on May 8.
Burhan's wife, Hery, who died in the accident, was buried in Yogyakarta on Friday.
Burhan's body is expected to arrive in Jakarta on Tuesday evening and will be laid out at the Foreign Ministry office complex. Later, his body will be handed over to the family in Yogyakarta, where he will be laid to rest.
Burhan was born on Aug. 3, 1957, in Yogyakarta, where he completed an international relations degree at the famed Gadjahmada University in 1983. He studied international relations at the University of Pittsburgh, the US, and graduated with a Master's degree in 1993.
He started his career at the intelligence agency and went on to become BIN's deputy for foreign affairs and analysis until 2012.
Burhan was inaugurated as Indonesian ambassador to Pakistan following the submission of his credentials to the Pakistani government on Nov. 12, 2012. (ebf)
