hree Indonesian migrant workers were found safe Friday after being reported missing a day earlier in Haiti, where a cataclysmic earthquake killed possibly tens of thousands of people and displaced millions, the Foreign Ministry said.
"We received information this morning that the three Indonesians had been found safe," ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah told reporters on Friday, identifying them as Ni Luh Made Juini, Ni Ketut Yasri Astiti and I Gusti Ayu Putu Sukerti.
Juini is a resident of Bedugul, Tabanan regency, Bali, according to the province's Manpower Agency head, Made Artadana. She worked in Haiti through a Balinese botanical spa company. "She left on Feb. 6, 2009," Artadana was quoted as saying by news portal kompas.com. He had no information about Astiti and Sukerti, and suspected the two went to Haiti on their own.
The spokesman said the three Indonesians were employees at the Caribee Hotel, which was among the few buildings that did not collapse in the catastrophe. Indonesia's acting Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, Hasan Kleib, was quoted by Antara news agency as saying they were currently staying at the hotel while waiting to be evacuated.
The ministry was informed about the missing workers by two Indonesian nationals, Endang Satriyani and Yogi Anggoro, who met them at a gathering on Dec. 25 last year. Endang and Yogi, who work as volunteers for the United Nations Stabilization Mission in the poor and politically volatile country, managed to escape their crumbling office building when the 7.0-magnitude earthquake rattled the Caribbean nation, Antara reported.
It is not clear if there are any other Indonesians in Haiti as Jakarta has no diplomatic relations with Haiti. "I am actually surprised to know we have citizens working there," Faizasyah said.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian disaster team that planned to fly to Haiti on Friday night decided to postpone their departure until Monday as it had not acquired permission from US officials to land in Honolulu, an official at the Public Welfare Ministry told The Jakarta Post.
The Associated Press reported that the US Federal Aviation Administration halted all civilian flights to Haiti for nearly eight hours Thursday while some aircraft spent hours circling awaiting permission to land at an already crowded airport that lacked sufficient supplies for refueling.
Planes seeking to land at the Port-au-Prince airport were kept circling two hours or more Thursday, and some flights were diverted to Santa Domingo while others were sent back to Florida.
The Public Welfare Ministry said the disaster relief team that would be sent to Haiti included 30 surgeons and paramedics, and 20 search and rescue personnel, while the aid consisted of two tons of medicines, 15 tons of food, 2,000 tents, 10,000 blankets and two water purifiers.
The team will conduct their mission for two weeks, which can be extended if deemed necessary by the government. "What matters is sending them there, because survivors are waiting for help from people around the world," Coordinating Public Welfare Minister Agung Laksono said.
Taken From: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2010/01/16/five-indonesians-survive-haiti039s-quake.html
