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Indonesia's envoy to Ukraine passes away after massive evacuation effort
The Indonesian Ambassador to Ukraine, Ghafur Akbar Dharmaputra, has passed away after being hospitalized for treatment in Jakarta on his return from Kyiv, where he had coordinated a massive evacuation effort of his fellow compatriots.
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Ghafur Dharmaputra speaks at a panel discussion organized in Jakarta by the Communications and Information Ministry. The career diplomat, who took up his post as the Indonesian Ambassador to Ukraine mere weeks before the Russian invasion, died on May 12, 2022 in Jakarta. (Courtesy of the Coordinating Human Development and Culture Ministry/-)
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hafur Akbar Dharmaputra, the Indonesian Ambassador to Ukraine who led more than 100 Indonesian men, women and children out of a war zone to safety, died in intensive care at a South Jakarta hospital on Thursday. He was 58 years old.
Ghafur is survived by his wife and two children.
The career diplomat, who started his tenure in Kyiv mere weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, was rushed to hospital suffering from extreme exhaustion after he finished coordinating the evacuation of Indonesian citizens into neighboring Poland and Romania.
He then flew back to Indonesia, where he was quietly receiving intensive care treatment for an unspecified health issue at Medistra Hospital until his death on Thursday evening.
Foreign Ministry officials and the Indonesian Embassy in Kyiv have confirmed his passing.
“We bore witness to this good man who carried out his duties with the utmost responsibility,” Judha Nugraha, the ministry’s director of protection for overseas citizens, said on Thursday.
At a press conference on March 1, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi announced the “highly complex and dangerous” evacuation of Indonesians amid fierce fighting in Ukraine.
As Russian forces marched into Ukraine from multiple fronts, Retno said she had maintained contact with authorities on both sides, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and several foreign counterparts to secure safe passage for Indonesian nationals from evacuation until repatriation.
Read also: Indonesians in Ukraine share their stories
Indonesian residents of Ukraine lived in several cities, which had further complicated overland evacuation efforts, Retno told the press conference.
Ghafur coordinated the successful evacuation of Indonesian citizens with the embassies in Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Russia.
The first stage of the evacuation got 25 Indonesian women and children out of Tulcea through Odessa, and then along the borders of Moldova and Romania to arrive in Bucharest on the afternoon of Feb. 27 after a 35-hour bus ride. They also had to wait 4.5 hours at the Romanian border, where cars had formed a line of more than 10 kilometers long over the two days before they made the crossing.
In its largest operation, the Indonesian Embassy in Kyiv evacuated 59 Indonesians and one foreign national using 12 overland vehicles, which arrived in Romania late on Feb. 28. The motorcade took the southern route through the city of Vinnytsia and made it to the Moldovian border while avoiding the main thoroughfares, which were choked with other people fleeing the war.
Ghafur remained in Ukraine until most Indonesians who wanted to leave the country, especially those who were trapped in the city of Chernihiv, had been evacuated.
By March 18, all but 21 Indonesian nationals who had decided to stay in Ukraine for personal reasons had made it safely out of the country. The envoy and his nine-strong skeleton crew at the embassy in Kyiv then temporarily relocated to Kosice, Slovakia.
Prior to his appointment as the Indonesian Ambassador to Ukraine, Ghafur worked at the Office of the Coordinating Human Development and Culture Minister until November 2021.
Ghafur is being laid to rest at Tanah Kusir Cemetery in South Jakarta following the Friday prayers on May 13.
Editor's note: Updated with additional details.
