The Indonesian Red Cross organization (PMI) sent personnel and humanitarian aid from Halim Perdana Kusuma Airport in East Jakarta on Saturday to assist refugees of the deadly conflict between the Rohingya and Rakhine ethnic groups in Myanmar.

The PMI sent eight personnel and aid comprising 500 hygiene kits, 3,000 blankets and 10,000 sarongs by cargo plane BAE 146-200/PKJKC.

PMI spokeswoman Ayu Andini said that the PMI had decided to send non-food aid based on the assessment of a team lead by PMI chairman Jusuf Kalla when the latter visited Myanmar at the beginning of August.

According to Ayu, the said personnel joining the flight to Myanmar would assess the needs of the victims in order to determine what kind of aid the PMI would send next.

“PMI will channel the second batch of aid after PMI chairman Jusuf Kalla and the Myanmar Red Cross chairman sign an a memorandum of understanding [MoU] in Myanmar on Sept. 8,” she said.

Kalla said that the mission to help Myanmar was the first for Indonesia or neighbor countries around the region, adding that it was the result of cooperation between the Red Cross and the Myanmar government.

The government of Myanmar recently allowed the PMI, along with other international humanitarian agencies, to send aid to refugees of the deadly conflict between Rohingyas and Rakhines in Myanmar.

According to the UN Human Rights Council, at least 78 people have been reported dead since riots broke put in May, while 1,200 people have gone missing and 80,000 others are seeking refuge around Sittwe and Maungdaw, Myanmar.

More than 800,000 Rohingya Muslims live in Myanmar, but they are not recognized by the government as one of its ethnic groups. Deadly summer riots between the Muslim Rohingya and Buddhist majority have forced many to flee to neighboring Bangladesh, where the European Union says 40,000 unregistered Rohingya already live in makeshift camps.

Data from Indonesian Foreign Ministry said that 394 Rohingya were seeking refugee status in Indonesia, 124 of which were ready to be resettled in third party countries. The remaining 199 displaced persons are sheltered in a number of refugee camps in the country.

According to Kalla, the Rohingya refugees used Indonesia as a transit country before fleeing to Australia. “They won’t stay in Indonesia because they want to go to Australia and find a better life there,” he said as quoted by tempo.co.id, adding that the refugees perceived more promising futures in Australia than in Indonesia.

Kalla said the current batch of aid was purely from the organization. “None of this aid has come from the government,” he said, adding that the Indonesian government might cooperate with the government of Myanmar on other needs.

The Indonesian government and public have been actively discussing ways to help Rohingya victims.

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa recently urged members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to take concrete and constructive steps to help settle crucial problems currently facing the Muslim world, including the Rohingya conflict.

The Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) lawmaker Mahfud Siddiq said on Saturday his party had sent a team to visit the Myanmar government and parliament members in connection with the Rohingya conflict.

Mahfud said the House of Representatives’ Commission I on foreign affairs would also be sending a team to Myanmar in September. (cor)

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