RI embassy in Sana'a begins evacuation

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian embassy in Yemen yesterday began evacuating dependents of the mission's staff as the situation in Sana'a deteriorated amid the escalating civil war.

"We are very concerned with the way the civil war is developing and with the uncertainty in Yemen," Ambassador Achmad Noor, who made the decision to begin the evacuation, was quoted by the Antara news agency as saying yesterday.

"To prevent the worst case scenario, we've decided to begin with the dependents of the embassy staff first."

Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas last week said he was leaving the decision of when to evacuate to the ambassador.

The Indonesian embassy was aided when the Egyptian embassy in Sana'a flew out 32 women and children to Cairo yesterday, where they will spent a few days before flying on to Jakarta, Achmad said. Four other non-embassy staff who live in Yemen will also join the first flight out of Sana'a.

There are 106 Indonesians registered with the Indonesian embassy, including 42 staff and dependents of the embassy.

The others are ordinary Indonesian citizens, of which 16 live in Sana'a and the rest in Aden and Hadramaut.

The Indonesian embassy has also been involved in arranging the evacuation of some 5,000 Filipinos from Yemen since the Philippines does not maintain an embassy there, according to Antara.

By Sunday however, only 21 Filipinos had managed to leave the country, traveling by road to Najran, a town on the border with Saudi Arabia, Eko Indiarto, a staff member at the embassy said.

The Philippine Air Force was expected to fly in two Hercules transport planes on Monday to fly out 700 Filipinos and the rest would be evacuated in phases, Eko said.

"During the war, we helped them apply for the necessary papers at the Yemeni foreign ministry and we've always been in contact with the Philippine embassy in Riyadh," he said.

Many other foreigners have also evacuated Sana'a as the capital city has become the target of missile attacks.

A Scud missile landed about 750 meters from the Indonesian embassy building in one such attack, according to Antara. (emb)