RI CITIZENS EVACUATED FROM TENSION-PLAGUED EGYPT

By Andi Abdussalam

Jakarta, Jan 31 (ANTARA) - The Indonesian government has finally decided to evacuate its citizens  and deploy commercial and military airplanes  to fly home over 6,000 Indonesians from Egypt  which is now being plagued by political tension.          The decision to evacuate Indonesian citizens from Egypt was made in a  cabinet meeting on Monday following the worsening of political tension and social unrest  in Egypt where demonstrators demanded that President Hosni Mubarak step down.          President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during a cabinet meeting on Monday ordered the evacuation of Indonesian citizens and the formation of an evacuation task force.          The task force consisted of personnel from Health Ministry and Transportation Ministry and is led by former foreign minister Hassan Wirajuda who is also a member of the Presidential Advisory Board.          President Yudhoyono said the evacuation would be carried out using commercial and other planes possible for use for it. The planes will depart from the country. "If necessary they will start leaving to Cairo tonight," he said.          According to Hassan Wirajuda, the team that will be assigned to evacuate Indonesian citizens in Egypt is leaving for that country on Monday night. "We will send an advance team tonight," Wirajuda said at the Presidential Office.          He said that the team was expected to leave for Egypt at 3.0 a.m Tuesday at the latest.  The advance team would arrange everything needed in the first phase of evacuation where priorities would be given to evacuating about 1,200 women and children.          He said that the government had made three airplanes available for the first phase of the evacuation. The three planes will come from Garuda Indonesia, Lion Air and Sriwijaya Air. They will also be used to transport various kinds of logistic supplies to meet the daily need of the Indonesians still staying in Egypt.          In the meantime, the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) is preparing a heavy transport plane C-130 Hercules to help evacuate Indonesian citizens who are trapped in the Egyptian political unrest.          Air Force Spokesman Air Commodore Bambang Samoedro said here on Monday that his side had not yet decided how many Hercules planes  would be deployed. "The number of planes will largely depend on the situation and condition in Egypt," he said.          As regards, the Air Force will send its Deputy Chief Vice Marshal Soekirno, Military Police Commandant Air Commodore Soedipo and Flight Col. Yuyu Sutisna as an advance team to Egypt. "They will be leaving tonight," Bambang Samoedro said on Monday.           The government has named Nasr City as the meeting point before evacuation is carried out. This city is near the place where Indonesians are gathering.          Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said that the planes were now ready to fly to Egypt to carry out air evacuation.          However, the Indonesian government still needed to coordinate with the Egyptian government to obtain license for the planes to land in that country.          Marty said that the Indonesian government's decision to evacuate its citizens was based on consideration that the situation in Egypt was turning more and more dangerous.          He said that effort to ensure security in Egypt were now in the hands of the military, no longer of the police. Even, a police station near the Indonesian embassy has reportedly been destroyed by demonstrators.           The foreign ministry's latest data indicated that Indonesian citizens staying in Egypt numbered 6,149, consisting of 4,297 students and 1,002 employees and their family members. They are now building communications in 20 command posts.           Earlier, Deputy Foreign Minister Triyono Wibowo said the government is greatly concerned about the fate of over 6,000 Indonesians in Egypt where the situation is still very tense.           "We hope the situation in Egypt could be well under control, while actually we did not wish to middle in the situation in that country, and we are therefore deeply concerned about the fate of our 6,045 people there," he said on Sunday.           On the sidelines of a discussion on regional border at the University of Narotama (Unnar) in East Java, he said the government's attention to its citizens in Egypt is seeing that Indonesians are free from suffering.          "Some of our people in Egypt are students, workers, and many have other professions, but since the last couple of days (Jan 28) our government has issued an official notification in the   website of the Indonesian mission in Egypt," he said.            The notification hoped Indonesians need to remain calm and stay home and avoid points of restlessness, and at any time may contact Indonesian representative mission there if they knew something bad had happened.            "Up till now none of our people had been hurt, especially that in addition to the 6,045 Indonesians officially listed at Indonesian representative offices, some had yet to be registered," he said.          On Sunday, Indonesian Ambassador to Egypt A.M. Sachir said his side had asked the Egyptian military authorities to protect Indonesian citizens following the current tension in that country.           "We have asked the military which is taking over the handling of security affairs to protect Indonesian citizens," the ambassador said.           He said that up to now all Indonesian citizens in Egypt were secured although demonstrations were still taking place in a number of regions there. The ambassador said there are about 5,000 Indonesian citizens in Egypt, about 4,000 of whom are students who mostly stay in big cities such as Cairo.          "Resettlement centers where Indonesian citizens are staying are far away from locations of demonstrations, which are mostly organized in big cities and strategic areas," the ambassador said.          Yet, the Indonesian embassy in Cairo has provided directions for Indonesian citizens asking them to stay alert over the developing situation in Egypt.      (T.A014/A/HAJM/00:40/a014) 01-02-2011 00:43:1