Indonesia is still trying to ascertain the fate of three of its five citizens known to be in Haiti when a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the island, an official said on Thursday.
Two Indonesians working as volunteers with the UN Stabilization Mission (Minustah) in the capital of Port-au-Prince have been confirmed safe but three women are still not accounted for, Teguh Wardoyo, from the Foreign Ministry, said.
The Minustah volunteers “are now sheltered at the mission’s compound in Port-au-Prince,” he said, identifying them as Endang Satriyani and Yogi Anggoro.
Indonesia’s Charge d’Affaires at the Security Council, Hasan Kleib, said on Thursday that the two “managed to get out of their office before it collapsed.”
Hasan said the information had reached him via Luigi Pralangga, an Indonesian working at a UN mission in Liberia. Luigi told Hasan that there were also three Indonesian women in the capital when the quake struck.
“Yogi said he had recently met them in Port-au-Prince,” Hasan said. “The three women came from Bali but their names are yet to be disclosed. A report says they were working at the Caribee Hotel in Port-au-Prince.”
Teguh said he could not yet determine if the two survivors would be repatriated to Indonesia since they are UN employees and might have to continue their work there.
Indonesia’s permanent representative office in New York and Minustah’s offices in New York and Port-au-Prince are still monitoring the search for the three missing Indonesians.
Teguh said his office was still coordinating with the Indonesian representative in New York to discover if there were any Indonesian sailors among the earthquake’s victims.
“We can’t be sure of their whereabouts since sailors are very mobile,” he said.
Meanwhile, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ordered the Swift Reaction Disaster Management Unit (SRC-PB) to urgently send a team to Haiti. “I have instructed the Indonesian delegation to go to Haiti and help the people cope with the disaster,” Yudhoyono said on Thursday.
Syamsul Ma’arif, the head of the National Disaster Management Agency, said the agency was still making final preparations for the Haiti mission. “I will strengthen coordination in [Thursday’s] meeting related to the SRC-PB’s team departure to Haiti. The team will leave on Friday,” Ma’arif said.
JG, Antara
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