VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

President Joko Widodo has sought consistency and commitment from law enforcement officers to prevent and fight economic and financial crimes.

"I seek commitment and consistency from law (enforcement) officers in preventing and fighting economic and financial crimes," the head of state noted during a virtual annual coordination meeting on preventing and eradicating money laundering and terrorism funding 2021 here on Thursday.

The president laid emphasis on upholding commitment and consistency in preventing and combating money laundering to have a deterrent effect on perpetrators.

The head of state also urged the Task Force for List of Suspected Terrorists and Terrorist Organizations (OTTOT) to play its role optimally in thwarting terrorism funding raised through public donation on the pretext of humanitarian donation and other attempts aimed at gaining public sympathy.

Widodo further expressed gratitude to the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) and all ministries and institutions involved in preventing money laundering and terrorism funding.

"We must work hand in hand to maintain the integrity and stability of our economic and financial systems, so that we stay strong and are able to sustain various economic disturbances," he emphasized. (Antaranews)

A joint search and rescue (SAR) team has collected 16 more body bags from the site of the Sriwijaya Air plane crash in the waters off the Seribu Islands.

"We will later hand over the 16 bags of body parts to the team of DVI (Disaster Victim Identification) and KNKT (National Committee for Transportation Safety) for further investigation," operations director of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas), Brig. Gen. Rasman MS, said during a press conference at the integrated SAR command post at the Jakarta International Container Terminal (JICT) 2 in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, on Thursday.

The body bags were transported from the crash site to the integrated SAR command post on a Basarnas vessel.

They were the fourth batch to be handed over to the DVI and KNKT team.

A total of 196 body bags have been collected since the search operation commenced.

Earlier, the Marine Security Agency (Bakamla) also handed over a bag of plane debris and a bag containing passengers' property in the form of books or journals to the DVI and KNKT team for further investigation.

The Sriwijaya Air flight SJ-182, bearing the registration number PK-CLC, lost contact on Saturday (January 9, 2020) at 2:40 p.m. Western Indonesia time (WIB) shortly after take-off and crashed between Lancang Island and Laki Island, Seribu Islands, DKI Jakarta. The flight was traveling on the Jakarta-Pontianak route.

The Boeing 737-500 aircraft lost contact at a position 11 nautical miles north of the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Tangerang after crossing an altitude of 11 thousand feet and while climbing to a higher altitude of 13 thousand feet.

The plane took off from Soekarno-Hatta Airport at 2.36 p.m. Western Indonesia time (WIB) on Saturday. Its schedule was delayed from the previous flight schedule of 1.35 p.m. WIB due to weather conditions.

Based on the manifest, the aircraft, which was produced in 1994, was carrying 62 persons: 50 passengers and 12 crew members. The passengers comprised 40 adults, seven children, and three babies. (Antaranews)

Research vessel Baruna Jaya has detected the suspected location of the crashed Sriwijaya Air flight SJ-182's cockpit voice recorder (CVR), officials informed on Thursday.

Chief of the Agency for Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT), Hammam Riza, said the agency's Baruna Jaya IV is still at the crash site and is continuing to search for the CVR, which is part of the black box flight recorder.

"The search for the CVR is still ongoing using an undersea robot which is commonly called Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV)," he said in a press statement released on Thursday.

The ROV is equipped with Ultra Short Baseline (USBL), capable of determining the coordinate position so that the location of any item on the seabed can be determined, he informed.

During the search operation in which the RCV was deployed over a 53-meter radius, 34 locations of plane debris have been found, with the farthest debris found at a distance of 53 meters from the point where the flight data recorder was retrieved, he said.

The plane's flight data recorder (FDR) was retrieved by Navy divers from the seabed around 4:30 p.m. local time on Tuesday. It was found lying about 23 meters below the water surface.

The FDR device of the aircraft, which was carrying 50 passengers and 12 crew members on board when it crashed into the ocean on January 9, 2021, has been handed over to the National Committee for Transportation Safety (KNKT).

The Transportation Ministry had earlier confirmed that airport authorities had lost contact with the Sriwijaya Air flight, serving the Jakarta-Pontianak route, around 2:40 p.m. local time on Saturday (January 9, 2021).

According to the ministry, the last contact with the Boeing 737-500 jet, bearing the registration number PK-CLC, was made at 11 nautical miles north of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, after the aircraft crossed an altitude of 11 thousand feet and was ascending to 13 thousand feet

The plane took off from Soekarno-Hatta Airport at 2:40 p.m. local time on Saturday and was scheduled to land at Supadio Airport in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, at 3:50 p.m. local time. (Antaranews)

On this day in 2011, WHO South-East Asia Region reported its last case of wild poliovirus from West Bengal in India. A decade later, countries in the Region are gearing up for massive vaccination campaigns, taking lessons from polio program, but surpassing its scale and size in a bid to end COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are witnessing unprecedented efforts by Member countries to protect their vulnerable population against COVID-19 with vaccines,” said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia.

Indonesia rolled out COVID-19 vaccination today, while preparations are in full swing in India for one of the world’s biggest vaccination programme beginning 16 January, and in other countries for their campaign in the coming months.

Safe and effective vaccines can be a gamechanger if accessible across the world and to all vulnerable population within the countries.

Vaccines will help to curtail the COVID-19 pandemic. However, they won't solve everything by themselves as initially they are bound to be in limited supplies. As the COVID-19 crisis continues, we still need to continue to take all necessary measures - COVID appropriate behavior by one and all  - masks, hand hygiene, cough etiquette, physical distancing -   and core public health measures by the authorities – detect, test, trace, isolate and treat - to prevent the virus from spreading and causing more disease and deaths.

Community engagement and participation – both for continued COVID-19 appropriate behavior and vaccination – will be critical to curtail the virus transmission.

WHO continues to work with all countries for COVID-19 vaccination planning and roll out, to have a robust National Deployment and Vaccination Plan covering all elements of planning and management needed to deliver a vaccine.

The network of surveillance officers in countries such as Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar and Nepal, which was the backbone of polio eradication programme, is now also in the forefront supporting coordination, preparedness and roll out of COVID-19 vaccination down to the district level.

Bringing in best practices from polio eradication, WHO has supported countries in the Region with development of operational guidelines and plans for COVID-19 vaccination; training of vaccinators; planning vaccine and logistics management; and monitoring key preparatory activities.

At the global level, the ACT-Accelerator partnership launched by WHO and partners, has supported the fastest, most coordinated, and successful global effort in history to develop tools to fight COVID-19. The vaccine pillar - COVAX - co-led by WHO, Gavi and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, aims to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines, and to guarantee fair and equitable access. (WHO)