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.
Government offers relief flights for diaspora in Myanmar
The Foreign Ministry has advised some 500 Indonesian citizens in Myanmar either to avoid going out or to come home on the relief flights it has arranged.
Change Size
T
he government has advised all Indonesian citizens without an urgent reason to remain in Myanmar to consider taking relief flights home amid the latest spate of violence that has seen security forces kill dozens of civilian protesters in the neighboring country.
Pro-democracy protesters have refused to back down in spite of the military junta’s increasing use of force in recent weeks, less than two months since the military coup ousted Myanmar’s democratically elected civilian government and its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Nevertheless, the Foreign Ministry’s citizen protection director, Judha Nugraha, has insisted that current conditions are relatively safe for Indonesian residents in Myanmar.
“There may have been several demonstrations and the imposition of martial law in several areas where [Indonesian citizens] live, but there have been no direct attacks on Indonesian citizens,” Judha said on Monday after a meeting with Indonesian diaspora and officials from the Indonesian Embassy in Yangon.
Myanmar state broadcaster MRTV has announced that martial law was imposed in parts of Yangon, which means that military commanders in the country’s main commercial hub have taken over district administration, including the courts.
Judha said that evacuation was not an urgent need at present, but he also advised that Indonesians without essential purposes should consider repatriating on the relief flights operated by Singapore Airlines and Myanmar Airlines.
“Currently, about 50 Indonesian citizens have returned home using the relief flights,” he said in a statement released on Tuesday.
Read also: Global alarm grows as more protesters killed in Myanmar crackdown
Since April 2020, Myanmar has only allowed relief flights to enter and leave the country as part of its COVID-19 response.
Indonesia’s Foreign Ministry estimates that only around 500 Indonesian citizens reside in Myanmar, and that most work in the oil and gas industry and the garment industry, and as part of transportation crew.
The Indonesian Embassy in Yangon earlier in the month increased its advisory level to Siaga II – the second of a three-tier alert system stipulated in Foreign Minister Regulation No. 8/2019 – and urged its citizens to stay inside their homes and avoid traveling or commuting if they had no urgent need to do so.
The embassy also set up a temporary shelter at the Yangon Indonesian School for citizens concerned about their safety.
“The [Myanmar] foreign affairs ministry and the Indonesian Embassy will also assist with charter flight arrangements if this option is requested by Indonesian citizens,” Judha said.
He added that the directorate, in coordination with the embassy, would continue monitoring developments in Myanmar. It has also set up a hotline for citizens who needed assistance.
Myanmar security forces on Monday shot dead at least 20 civilians, AFP reported.
At least 74 civilians were killed on Sunday by security forces, many in a Yangon suburb where Chinese-financed factories were torched, according to the Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).
The AAPP said that a total of 183 protesters had been killed by Myanmar’s security forces in the five weeks of demonstrations since the coup on Feb. 1, noting that casualties were increasing drastically.
Read also: Myanmar’s ousted lawmakers tell ASEAN to pick a side
News agencies reported that protesters held candlelight vigils over the weekend in Yangon to honor those who had died while demonstrating against the military coup.
The United Nations, the United States, China and Britain have all condemned the violence, which the UN said had claimed the lives of "peaceful protesters" including women and children.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has renewed his call for the international community, "including regional actors, to come together in solidarity with the people of Myanmar and their democratic aspirations", his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Monday, in a video posted on the UN website.
Indonesia and other ASEAN member states have taken a more tactful and informal approach in their response to the coup. Experts say this is due partly to the group’s principle of noninterference and its insistence on not overly antagonizing Myanmar’s military generals.
ASEAN’s early ambiguity in its coordinated response prompted a group of protesters to gather at the Indonesian Embassy in Yangon, demanding that Jakarta and the regional bloc not legitimize the coup. A similar protest was held at the Indonesian Embassy in Bangkok.
A provisional government led by members of the ousted Myanmar parliamentary and the ruling National League for Democracy has also advised ASEAN to make clear which side it stands on.
