VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Jakarta. Brunei, the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, on Monday threw its support behind a regional leaders’ meeting to discuss developments in Myanmar and said it has asked officials to prepare for a meeting in Jakarta.

Myanmar has been in crisis since a Feb. 1 military coup that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Activists say at least 557 people have since been killed in a crackdown by security forces on protests and strikes across the country, where the junta has restricted internet access.

Indonesia has led efforts by members of ASEAN, of which Myanmar is a member, to encourage a negotiated solution, despite a longstanding policy of not commenting on each other’s domestic problems.

In a joint statement with Malaysia, Brunei said both countries have asked their ministers and senior officials to undertake “necessary preparations for the meeting that will be held at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, Indonesia.”

The statement followed a meeting between Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah on Monday.

“Both leaders agreed for ASEAN leaders to meet to discuss the ongoing developments in Myanmar,” they said.

They did not say when the meeting would be held.

Both leaders expressed concern over the rising number of fatalities in Myanmar.

“They urged all parties to refrain from instigating further violence, and for all sides to immediately exercise utmost restraint and flexibility,” according to the statement.

ASEAN operates by consensus but the divergent views of its 10 members on how to respond to the army’s use of lethal force against civilians and the group’s policy of non-interference has limited its ability to act.

Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore have all expressed alarm over the killings of demonstrators and support an urgent high-level meeting on Myanmar.

Their foreign ministers each separately held talks last week with their counterpart in China, Myanmar’s influential northern neighbour. (Reuters)

Jakarta. Operations at Indonesia’s state oil company PT Pertamina’s 125,000 barrel-per-day refinery in Balongan may return to normal this week, following a fire in some parts of the refinery, a company director told parliament on Monday.

The fire broke out just after midnight last Monday, forcing Pertamina to shut the plant and evacuate around 950 nearby residents. Ten people are being treated in hospital from the effects of the fire.

“For primary processing, it is already operating normally, and a start-up for secondary processing is being carried out,” Djoko Priyono, the director of Pertamina’s refinery arm, Pertamina Kilang Internasional, said.

“It is hoped that by the end of this week, we can return to normal,” he said.

The company had began the restart process at the refinery on March 31, two days after the fire broke out, a Pertamina spokesman, Ifki Sukarya, told Reuters earlier on Monday.

The company said after the fire last week that only 7% of the refinery’s 1.35 million kilolitres (KL) of storage capacity was affected.

It said the tanks that caught fire had been only holding around 23,000 KL of gasoline and national fuel stocks also remained secure.

The cause of the fire is still being investigated, Pertamina CEO, Nicke Widyawati told parliament at the same hearing. (Reuters)

Jakarta. East Timor received its first batch of coronavirus vaccine on Monday, arranged by the global vaccine sharing scheme COVAX, the European Union, which backs the initiative said, as the tiny Southeast Asian nation readies to start an inoculation drive on Wednesday.

A total of 24,000 doses has arrived as planned from the facility which plans to provide vaccines enough to cover 20% of the country’s population of 1.3 million.

The former Portuguese colony has detected 714 cases of the coronavirus, most of which it said were imported, and no casualty so far.

But its porous border with Indonesia, which has recorded around 1.53 million COVID-19 cases and 41,600 deaths as of Sunday, has raised concern the virus could spread and wreak havoc on East Timor’s poorly equipped healthcare system.

East Timor put its capital city on a coronavirus lockdown last month for the first time amid fears of a local outbreak. (Reuters)

Jakarta. Floods and landslides triggered by tropical cyclone Seroja in a cluster of islands in southeast Indonesia and East Timor have killed 97 people, with many still unaccounted for and thousands displaced, officials said on Monday.

At least 70 deaths were reported in several islands in Indonesia’s West and East Nusa Tenggara provinces, while 70 others were missing, after the cyclone brought flash floods, landslides and strong winds amid heavy rain over the weekend, disaster agency BNPB said.

In East Timor, which shares the Timor island with Indonesia, at least 27 people were killed by landslides, flash floods and a falling tree, while 7,000 displaced, its government said.

On Lembata island, authorities feared bodies had been washed away.

“We are using rubber boats to find bodies at sea. In several villages, flash floods hit while people were sleeping,” Thomas Ola Langoday, deputy head of Lembata district government, told Reuters by phone.

About 30,000 people have been impacted by floods in Indonesia, some already taking shelter in evacuation centres, but rescue operations have been made difficult after five bridges collapsed and falling trees blocked some roads, BNPB spokesman Raditya Jati said.

A continuing storm had also halted evacuations in some places, local authorities said.

Hundreds of houses and other facilities such as a solar power plant were damaged, BNPB said. Ships and motor boats sank as the cyclone set off waves as high as 6 metres.

Powerful currents continued to flow through villages in the Malaka district on Timor island on Monday, even though the rain had stopped.

Some residents there hauled themselves to their roofs to escape flood water rising to 3-4 metres.

“We had to dismantle the zinc roof. We went out through the back door and pulled ourselves out with a rope,” Agustina Luruk, 36, told Reuters as she and her three daughters waited to be evacuated by the side of a muddy road.

President Joko Widodo offered his condolences and ordered speedy disaster relief efforts.

The Seroja cyclone hit the Savu sea southwest of Timor island in the early hours of Monday, Indonesia’s weather agency said.

Within 24 hours, the cyclone’s intensity could strengthen, bringing yet more rain, waves and winds, although it was moving away from Indonesia, the agency said. (Reuters)