JAKARTA: Captain pilot Ricosetta Mafella knew something was wrong in Palu but had no idea that what he felt on the runway and what he saw along the coast of Palu and Donggala in Central Sulawesi province was a 7.4-magnitude earthquake, which triggered a tsunami.
The Batik Air flight 6231 with 148 people on board was rolling on the runway when he sensed an unusual rocking movement during the last seconds before he took off at 6:02 p.m. local time from Mutiara Sis Al Jufri airport.
“I asked permission from the air traffic controller to take off and the tower responded: 'Batik Air 6231 runway 33 clear for take off.' When I reached 1,500 feet altitude, I contacted the tower again but there was no response,” Mafella told Arab News.
“As I took off, I looked out of the window and saw something strange happening on the sea along the coast of Palu and Donggala. There were about five large round white waves forming a row along the coast. I had no idea what they were. Something strange was happening but I tried to think positively.”
As he flew higher to 8,000 feet, he saw there were already about eight round, white waves with a radius that kept getting longer.
“It was like a row of white plates you put on a table, but in reality they were really large, round waves on the sea. I saw them all during seven minutes after we took off and before we changed our direction,” he said.
When the flight arrived in Makassar, South Sulawesi province, an hour later, he learned that a powerful earthquake and a tsunami had hit Palu and the “white plates” he saw on the sea were rolling waves that had formed owing to submarine landslides caused by the quake.
“Apparently those were the initial waves that later turned into a tsunami,” he said, adding that it was a breathtaking sight he could never forget.
He also learned that the air traffic controller who gave clearance for his flight to take off, Anthonius Gunawan Agung, had died from internal injuries and broken legs after jumping off the tower that was swaying in the quake.
“When he didn’t respond after I called him again at 1,500 feet high, I thought he was taking a break,” Mafella said.
The pilot described Agung as his “guardian angel” for keeping him and the other 147 people on board safely airborne, and dedicated a “wing of honor” to him.
Meanwhile, down in the coastal area of Palu, Suwarman Caco, a community neighborhood chief in Besusu Barat sub-district was sleeping in his house when the quake struck.
“The ground was shaking really hard. I was thrown here and there as I tried to get out of the house with my wife. My children and my grandchildren were nowhere to be seen,” Caco told Arab News, adding that he was reunited with them later in the evening at 11 p.m.
Since his house, which remains intact, is 300 meters away from Talize Beach, Caco said he didn’t see the tsunami but heard people screaming “Water, water, water!” 10 minutes after the tremor.
He estimated that more than 200 people from his neighborhood were on the beach as they were going to attend the opening of the Palu Nomoni Festival on the beach. The festival’s opening was scheduled for 8:30 p.m. and by the time the quake struck, people were already arriving.
Caco said that according to people who saw the tsunami, the dark-watered waves were seven meters high and swept the beach with a thundering sound within 10 minutes of the earthquake.
Five days after the twin disasters hit Palu and the neighboring districts of Donggala, Parigi Moutong and Sigi, the number of casualties has passed 1,000 and the number of people badly injured, missing and displaced has also risen.
National Disaster and Mitigation Agency spokesperson Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said at a press briefing on Tuesday that the number of people who have died in the disaster has reached 1,234, while there were now 799 injured, 99 still missing and 16,367 displaced.
“Some of the casualties have been identified through face recognition and their fingerprints, and they have been buried,” Nugroho said.
At least 65,733 houses are damaged but Nugroho said the authorities still can’t estimate the number of people buried in the rubble of houses on Petobo, Sigi district and Balaroa residential area in Palu, which was built not far from the Palu-Koro fault.
Indonesian pilot describes a strange sighting on the sea before tsunami hit Palu
Indonesian pilot describes a strange sighting on the sea before tsunami hit Palu
- The Batik Air flight 6231 with 148 people on board was rolling on the runway when it sensed an unusual rocking movement
- At 8,000 feet, pilot saw there were already about eight round, white waves with a radius that kept getting longer
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KYIV: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday it deployed 117 drones in a massive attack against Russian air bases that he called “our most long-range operation” in more than three years of war.
“A total of 117 drones were used in the operation. And a corresponding number of drone operators worked,” Zelensky said in a statement, adding that “34 percent of the strategic cruise missile carriers at the airfields were hit.”
Bangladesh opens trial of deposed ex-Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
- The investigators brought charges of crimes against humanity against Hasina over killing of hundreds of students in a mass uprising last year
- Hasina has been in exile in India since Aug. 5, 2023, while former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan is missing and possibly also is in India
DHAKA: A special tribunal set up to try Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina began proceedings Sunday by accepting the charges of crimes against humanity filed against her in connection with a mass uprising in which hundreds of students were killed last year.
The Dhaka-based International Crimes Tribunal directed investigators to produce Hasina, a former home minister and a former police chief before the court on June 16.
Hasina has been in exile in India since Aug. 5, 2023, while former Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan is missing and possibly also is in India. Former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al Mamun has been arrested. Bangladesh sent a formal request to India to extradite Hasina in December.
State-run Bangladesh Television broadcast the court proceedings live.
In an investigation report submitted on May 12, the tribunal’s investigators brought five allegations of crimes against humanity against Hasina and the two others during the mass uprising in July-August last year.
According to the charges, Hasina was directly responsible for ordering all state forces, her Awami League party and its associates to carry out actions that led to mass killings, injuries, targeted violence against women and children, the incineration of bodies and denial of medical treatment to the wounded.
Three days after Hasina’s ouster, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus took over as the nation’s interim leader.
In February, the UN human rights office estimated that up to 1,400 people may have been killed in Bangladesh over three weeks in the crackdown on the student-led protests against Hasina, who ruled the country for 15 years.
The tribunal was established by Hasina in 2009 to investigate and try crimes involving Bangladesh’s independence war in 1971. The tribunal under Hasina tried politicians, mostly from the Jamaat-e-Islami party, for their actions during the nine-month war against Pakistan. Aided by India, Bangladesh gained independence from Pakistan under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Hasina’s father and the country’s first leader.
Macron condemns ‘unacceptable’ violence during football celebrations
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PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday condemned the “unacceptable” violence during celebrations following Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League final victory, as he welcomed the triumphant team to the Elysee palace.
“Nothing can justify what has happened in the last few hours, the violent clashes are unacceptable,” the French leader said.
“We will pursue, we will punish, we will be relentless,” he added before congratulating the players on their win.
Two people died and police made nearly 600 arrests across France overnight as football fans celebrated PSG’s 5-0 triumph over Inter Milan in Munich.
“The violent clashes that took place are unacceptable and have come at a heavy cost: two people are dead, around 30 police officers and several firefighters have been injured,” Macron said.
“My thoughts are also with the police officer in Coutances who is currently in a coma,” he added.
Macron hosted Coach Luis Enrique and his team after their victory parade on the famed Champs Elysee, thanking the players for their quick condemnation of the previous night’s chaos.
“These isolated acts are contrary to the club’s values and in no way represent the vast majority of our supporters, whose exemplary behavior throughout the season deserves to be commended,” the club said on Sunday.
British FM says Morocco’s autonomy plan for W. Sahara ‘most credible’ solution
- Britain previously backed self-determination for the disputed Western Sahara, which Morocco claims as an integral part of its kingdom
- Spain and Germany now officially back the Moroccan autonomy plan, while France last summer recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over the territory
RABAT: British Foreign Minister David Lammy said on Sunday that Morocco’s autonomy plan for the territory of Western Sahara was the “most credible” solution to the decades-long dispute, reversing London’s long-standing position.
Western Sahara, a mineral-rich former Spanish colony, is largely controlled by Morocco but has been claimed in its entirety for decades by the pro-independence Polisario Front, which is backed by Algeria.
Morocco has been campaigning for broad support for its autonomy plan after obtaining US recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over the disputed territory in 2020, in exchange for the normalization of diplomatic relations with Israel.
“The United Kingdom considers Morocco’s autonomy proposal submitted in 2007 as the most credible, viable and pragmatic basis for a lasting resolution of the dispute,” Lammy told reporters in Rabat.
Britain previously backed self-determination for the disputed territory, which Morocco claims as an integral part of its kingdom.
The United Kingdom considers Morocco’s autonomy proposal submitted in 2007 as the most credible, viable and pragmatic basis for a lasting resolution of the dispute
UK Foreign Minister David Lammy
Moroccan foreign minister Nasser Bourita welcomed the shift, saying the new British position contributed “greatly to advancing this momentum and promoting the UN path toward a definitive and mutually acceptable solution based on the autonomy initiative.”
Rabat’s push for support for its autonomy plan has seen success.
Spain and Germany now officially back the Moroccan autonomy plan, while France last summer recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over the territory.
“This year is a vital window of opportunity to secure a resolution before we reach 50 years of the dispute in November,” said Lammy.
The foreign minister also said it encouraged “relevant parties to engage urgently and positively with the United Nations-led political process.”
The United Nations considers Western Sahara a “non-self-governing territory” and has had a peacekeeping mission there since 1991, whose stated aim is to organize a referendum on the territory’s future.
But Rabat has repeatedly ruled out any vote where independence is an option, instead proposing an autonomy plan.
The ceasefire collapsed in mid-November 2020 after Moroccan troops were deployed to the far south of the territory to remove separatists blocking the only route to Mauritania — a route they claimed was illegal, as it did not exist in 1991.
The UN Security Council is calling for negotiations without preconditions, while Morocco insists they focus solely on its autonomy plan.
“The only viable and durable solution will be one that is mutually acceptable to the relevant parties and is arrived at through compromise,” added Lammy.
In a joint statement, the United Kingdom noted that its export credit agency, UK Export Finance, may consider supporting projects in the Sahara as part of its commitment to mobilize 5 billion British pounds (approximately 5.9 billion euros) for new economic initiatives in Morocco.
Bangladesh opens trial of ex-PM Hasina for crimes against humanity
- Hearing broadcast live for first in special tribunal’s history
- Former home minister, ex-police chief ordered to be in court for second hearing on June 16
DHAKA: Bangladeshi prosecutors on Sunday opened the trial of fugitive former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is charged with orchestrating last year’s deadly crackdown on student-led protests.
Peaceful demonstrations, triggered by the reinstatement of a quota system for the allocation of civil service positions, began in early July 2024 but two weeks later they were met with a communications blackout and a violent crackdown by security forces.
In early August, as protesters defied a nationwide curfew, Hasina resigned and fled the country, ending 15 years in power of her Awami League party-led government.
“She unleashed various law enforcement and intelligence agencies against them (the protesting students) … They slaughtered the agitating students, injured them and committed crimes against humanity,” Mohammad Tajul Islam, chief prosecutor at Bangladesh’s domestic International Crimes Tribunal, told the court in his opening speech.
He charged the 77-year-old with “incitement, aiding and abetting, involvement in the commission of the crimes of murder, attempted murder, torture and other inhumane acts as part of the widespread and systematic attacks on innocent unarmed students and the public.”
The UN’s human rights office concluded in February that between July 15 and Aug. 5, 2024, the former government and its security and intelligence apparatus, together with “violent elements” linked to the Awami League, “engaged systematically in serious human rights violations and abuses in a coordinated effort to suppress the protest movement.”
It estimated that at least 1,400 people were killed during the protests, the majority by bullets from military rifles.
ICT investigators have collected video footage, audio clips, records of helicopter and drone movements, as well as statements from victims of the crackdown as part of the probe.
They also “seized records of telephonic conversations of Sheikh Hasina, in which she repeatedly confirmed that she ordered all the state agencies to eliminate innocent civilians peacefully protesting for a fair demand, using helicopters, drones and APCs (armored personnel carriers),” Islam said.
Sunday’s hearing was broadcast live for the first in the ICT’s history.
“The court accepted the charges against Sheikh Hasina, former Home Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and former police chief Chowdhury Abdullah Al-Mamun. There are five charges against them and the court accepted all five charges. We presented the charges through live broadcast before the nation,” Islam told reporters after the hearing.
Al-Mamun is the only accused who has been detained while the ex-home minister is in hiding and Hasina remains in self-imposed exile in neighboring India.
The next hearing is scheduled to take place on June 16. The tribunal ordered all three accused to be presented before the court.
The International Crimes Tribunal was established by Hasina in 2010 to investigate crimes committed by the Pakistani army and its loyalists during Bangladesh’s independence war in 1971.
Over the years, it grew to be widely seen as the Hasina government’s tool for eliminating political rivals.
