Indonesia receives foreign aid a week after powerful earthquake

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Indonesian military personnel unload relief aid from a Singapore Air Force cargo plane at the Mutiara Sis Al-Jufri airport in Palu, Central Sulawesi, on Oct. 4, 2018. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)
Updated 06 October 2018
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Indonesia receives foreign aid a week after powerful earthquake

JAKARTA: Foreign aid began pouring in on Friday to areas devastated by the 7.4 magnitude earthquake and the tsunami a week earlier in Indonesia’s Central Sulawesi province on the island of Sulawesi.

Indonesian officials have said that among the items they need most to distribute humanitarian aid to Palu — the provincial capital — and surrounding districts, is an aircraft that can land at Mutiara Sis Al Jufri airport where only 2,000 meters of runway remain intact.

Other items that Indonesia needs are water and sanitation, tents, power generators, field hospital and medical assistance.

The spokesman for the disaster mitigation agency said in a press conference that at least 10 Hercules aircraft from Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, India and New Zealand had taken part in deploying aid to Palu.

“There will be 12 planes from the US, Malaysia, China, South Korea, Japan and Thailand arriving soon,” Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said, adding that all foreign aid is arriving first in Balikpapan, the main city in East Kalimantan province across the Makassar Strait, before they are distributed to the disaster areas.

The Embassy of Japan said in a statement on Friday that a C-130 Hercules and 51 personnel of Japan’s disaster relief unit had arrived in Balikpapan and planned to begin air transport from Balikpapan to Palu on Saturday.

The Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) has donated relief goods such as 500 tents, generators, water purifiers and flocculants with a total value of 3 billion Indonesian rupiah, which have arrived in Balikpapan and will be distributed in the affected areas immediately.

Rescuers have managed to pull out bodies and survivors from the eight-story Roa Roa Hotel in Palu, which had a high occupancy rate at the time of the quake.

Nugroho said on Thursday that rescuers had managed to extract eight bodies from the ruins of the hotel, including a South Korean who had been participating in a paragliding competition. The competition had completed by the time the quake struck at 6.02 p.m. local time and it was held as part of the Pesona Palu Nomoni Festival to celebrate Palu’s 40th anniversary.

Wahyu Yudha, head of FASI (Federasi Aero Sport Indonesia), confirmed the paraglider’s death in a statement and said that the body of Dong Jin Lee, who was based in Bali, was found under the hotel’s rubble at 2.45 p.m. on Thursday and had been identified by his family. Another paraglider from East Java and a member of the Indonesian Air Force, Fahmi Ruddo, was also found dead in the debris.

Tagor Siagian, spokesman for the Indonesia Paragliding & Hanggliding Association (FASI), said that there were 32 paragliders, including those from Palu who participated in the competition, but most of those who were not from Palu were able to leave the city a day after the quake.

“There were seven paragliders who had been staying at the Roa-Roa Hotel. Four of them had been found dead earlier on Monday and Tuesday,” Siagian told Arab News.




Earthquake-affected Indonesian residents queue outside a government building to get relief aid in Palu, Sulawesi island, on Oct.4, 2018. (AFP)

The confirmed death toll has soared to 1,571 with 1,352 from Palu and the rest from the neighboring districts of Parigi Moutong, Donggala, Pasangkayu and Sigi.

“Rescuers will continue to look for more bodies and survivors seven days since the earthquake and tsunami hit, with the possibility to extending it to another week,” Nugroho said.

At least 1,510 bodies have been buried, while the number of those badly injured is now 2,549, while 70,821 people have been displaced.

With the possibility of casualties continuing to rise, Nugroho said that those who couldn’t be found by the end of the emergency phase would be classified as missing instead of confirmed dead.

It is very likely the number of people missing could reach thousands from the current 113, given the scale of devastation caused by the second quake - triggered calamity that hit Palu — soil liquefaction, or when the soil becomes saturated and loses its density.

As many as 66,238 houses are damaged, with 1,700 houses in Balaroa residential complex badly damaged by the liquefaction that followed the quake. In Petobo, an entire village of 744 houses collapsed and was swallowed by the liquefying soil.  

Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where active volcanoes are concentrated and tectonic plates meet and subduct, making it a disaster-prone area with frequent earthquakes. There are 127 active volcanoes that dot the Indonesian archipelago.

“So far, there have been 437 aftershocks, with decreasing intensity since the 7.4 magnitude quake. It will continue to happen as the faults are finding a balance,” Nugroho said.


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Myanmar woman arrested for Suu Kyi ‘happy birthday’ post: local media

  • The Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) reported on Monday that Hinn Yin Phyu was an MRTV employee who had been arrested after posting a “happy birthday” message for Suu Kyi, citing sources close to the detained woman

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Suu Kyi was the figurehead of Myanmar’s decade-long democratic thaw, becoming de facto leader as it opened up from military rule, but she has been incarcerated since February 2021 when the generals snatched back power in a coup.
She is serving a 27-year sentence on charges rights groups dismiss as fabricated and on Thursday marked her birthday behind bars while her son urged followers to publish messages declaring their support.
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One of those detained — Hinn Yin Phyu — was arrested at accommodation for employees of state media station MRTV in the capital Naypyidaw on Saturday, the statement said, without providing details of her posts.
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Military parades are a favorite of Xi’s, held primarily to mark the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949, Japan’s surrender and the anniversary of the PLA’s founding. Relentlessly drilled marching units, armored columns and aerial units all feature on such occasions.
Wu said inclusion of the latest generation weaponry demonstrates the PLA’s “strong ability to adapt to technological trends and evolving warfare, and to prevail in future wars, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
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Much of China’s massive military upgrading has been aimed at conquering Taiwan, which China still considers part of its territory, as well as replacing the United States as the main military power in the Asia-Pacific.


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China’s Xi urges Singapore leader to jointly resist ‘hegemony’

BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping called on Singapore’s prime minister to join the fight against “hegemony” and protectionism in trade as they met in Beijing on Tuesday.
Prime Minister Lawrence Wong’s first official visit to China lasts until Thursday.
He met Xi on Tuesday morning at Beijing’s opulent Great Hall of the People, with the Chinese leader urging their two countries to work to “stand on the right side of history and on the side of fairness and justice,” according to state broadcaster CCTV.
He told Wong that “the world cannot return to hegemony or be dragged back to the law of the jungle,” a veiled swipe at the United States, after President Donald Trump launched a barrage of tariffs this year on countries including China and Singapore.
Wong, in turn, told Xi he believed the Singapore-China relationship was “more important than before” in a time of “global turbulence and uncertainty.”
“We can work together to establish closer ties and... continue to strengthen multilateralism and the rules-based global order for the benefit of all countries,” Wong said.
Wong, who succeeded Lee Hsien Loong, the son of founding premier Lee Kuan Yew, in 2024, has warned the trade-dependent city-state could be hit hard by Trump’s tariffs.
Although Trump imposed a baseline 10 percent tariff on Singapore, the country is vulnerable to a global economic slowdown caused by the much higher levies on dozens of other countries because of its heavy reliance on international trade.
Following his meetings in Beijing, Wong will head to the northern Chinese city of Tianjin for a meeting of the World Economic Forum.