Indonesian Workers Deliver Relief Aid but Unable to Enter Haiti

Jakarta Globe, Nurfika Osman, January 22, 2010

A team of Indonesian medical workers, search-and-rescue experts and engineers sent to help the relief effort in quake-devastated Haiti has been turned away by the United Nations.

Syamsul Ma’arif, head of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), told the Jakarta Globe on Friday that the team, which had been waiting in neighboring Dominican Republic for approval to enter Haiti, had been forced to return to Indonesia after permission was denied to land its chartered airplane in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince.

“The humanitarian personnel could not enter Port-au-Prince because they already had enough medical staff and paramedics,” he said. “The United Nations, which is organizing the distribution of the relief aid, said they had enough personnel to help the earthquake victims.”

Syamsul said a field hospital that the team had brought from Indonesia was also rejected by the UN on the grounds that there was an oversupply.

The humanitarian team, which arrived in the Dominican Republic on Wednesday, handed over its 50 tons of aid — including three tons of medicine, five tons of dry rations, five tons of baby food, tents, blankets, an ambulance, truck and water purifiers — to the World Food Program instead of delivering it personally.

The Indonesian volunteers included 30 medical workers, a 10-member search-and-rescue team, 10 electrical engineers and journalists.

However, Teuku Faizasyah, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman, denied that the team had been “rejected.”

“The team decided not to proceed to Haiti in view of the unavailability of transportation from the Dominican Republic to Haiti,” he said. “But the team has ensured, with the help of the WFP, that the relief aid will be safely transferred to Haiti.”

Although he did not know when the aid would arrive, Teuku said Indonesian representatives would monitor its distribution.

Of the five Indonesian nationals stranded in Haiti after the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake, Teuku said the ministry was still coordinating with local authorities to arrange their repatriation.

Yogi Satriyani and Endang Anggoro, both UN workers, will stay on to help the relief effort, he said. Ni Luh Made Juini, Ni Ketut Yasri Astiti and I Gusti Ayu Putu Sukerti, who were all working at a hotel in Port-au-Prince before the quake, are scheduled to be evacuated to Hawaii.