RI INTENSIFYING EFFORTS TO EVACUATE CITIZENS FROM YEMEN by Fardah

        Jakarta, June 8, 2011 (ANTARA) - With the situation in strife-torn Yemen worsening by the day, the Indonesian government is intensifying efforts to evacuate its citizens from the Middle Eastern country.
       Yemen has been wracked by violent clashes since early February as demonstrators want President Abdullah Saleh to quit.

       At least 114 home and local staffers at the Indonesian embassy in Sanaa, Yaman, together with members of their families, have been evacuated to the embassy building.
       A number of Indonesians, mostly students, have earlier been given temporary accommodation at the embassy pending their evacuation process.
      The embassy building is considered a safer place although last Friday (June 3) there was an exchange of canon fire between government forces and armed opposition groups who had taken up positions only 500 meters from the embassy.
      The rebels shelled a mosque near the president`s palace injuring Saleh, the prime minister and several top officials.
       Indonesian Ambassador to Yaman Nurul Aulia told ANTARA correspondent in Cairo by phone on Monday (June 6), that some of the embassy staff would be leaving for Indonesia on Tuesday (June 7) to bring their children home for the school holidays.
       At present, the Indonesian embassy is processing the return of 29 Indonesian citizens, mostly university students, to their home towns by regular flights.
      Earlier, Ambassador Nurul Aulia said the embassy in Sanaa was waiting for funds for the further evacuation of Indonesians in view of the worsening security situation in the chaotic country.
       "The money is still being prepared, hopefully it would be available soon," the ambassador said late May 2011.

Since February, the Indonesian government has been considering evacuation process following the riots in Yemen.

"Our embassy in Sana`a is now re-counting around 3,000 Indonesians working there so if the situation gets worse, we are ready to evacuate them," Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa said in Jakarta on February 4.

The Indonesian ambassador to Yemen had put advertisement on At-Thaurah daily on February 20, 2011, urging Indonesian nationals and employers of Indonesian female migrant workers to register themselves or their employees with the Indonesian embassy in Sanaa.

There are around 3,259 Indonesian nationals in Yemen, including 1,700 students mostly studying in Mukalla (some 754 km northeast of Sanaa), and Tarim, both in Hadramaut Province before the armed crisis broke out.

Indonesians in Yemen can be found also in Sana`a, Hudaidah, Aden, and Sa`ada.

Among them are 300 Indonesian female migrant workers (TKWs), while around 300 more are believed not to have registered themselves with the Indonesian embassy so their whereabouts is not known.

Indonesian diplomats in Sanaa had gathered a number of Indonesian nationals last March and informed them about the possibility they would have to evacuate. They were also told to be careful, stay indoors and avoid crowds.

The embassy had built up a ample food stock in anticipation of an emergency, and set up emergency command posts in Aden, Mukalla, Hudaidah, Tarim and Sanaa.

The first phase of the evacuation process involving 24 people, mainly students, had been conducted on April 15, 2011.

Besides, 10 Indonesian stewardesses working for Yemen Airways had also been sent home by using a Yemen Air plane, and the same was done with 80 Indonesians visiting Yemen after performing the minor hajj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, according to Agus S. Budiman, the chief of the Indonesian embassy`s political function, concurrently the head of the evacuation task force, in Sanaa, last April.

On April 23, the embassy once again evacuated 14 Indonesian nationals to Jakarta following the escalating political crisis in the Middle Eastern country.

The evacuees had previously stayed in Yemeni cities such as Sanaa, Taiz, Aden, Maarib and Saadah.

Last May, the Indonesian embassy evacuated the third of the four batches of 57 people, mostly students, to Indonesia by regular commercial planes of Yemen Airlines and Emirates Airlines.

However, earlier it was reported that some 66 Indonesians, mostly students, currently taken shelter at the Indonesian embassy in San`a, Yemen, were reportedly reluctant to be evacuated to Indonesia despite the worsening situation.

"They are still reluctant to be evacuated to Indonesia in the hope the political and security situation in Yemen would soon improve," a press release of the Indonesian embassy in Sanaa received in Cairo said on June 1.

The Indonesian embassy on June 1 carried out its fifth batch of evacuation process by sending 17 people comprising students and household maids to Jakarta by Qatar Airways.

Ambassador Nurul Aulia has considered the security situation in the capital of Yemen is now very dangerous following fierce fighting between government forces and opposition demonstrators.

The ambassador and his staff are holding out in Wisma and a number of Indonesian nationals in the embassy building.

The evacuation process is quite difficult because situation in the roads is very dangerous including the one leading to the airport.

"We are all staying in the basement of Wisma Duta (Ambassador`s residence) and cannot go out because the situation is very dangerous," he said when contacted by ANTARA from Cairo, June 3, seeking confirmation about the situation there.

"As fighting has broken out in many parts of the Sanaa capital and many other areas, the Indonesian embassy urges all Indonesians, especially those still in the capital, to immediately leave Yemen," the Indonesian embassy said in a press release recently.

According to U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), fighting in Yemen has displaced about 300,000 people, and killed more than 200 in the past two weeks in Sanaa.***4***

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(T.F001/A/F001/F001) 08-06-2011 13:14:24