RI embassy in Sana'a begins evacuation

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)