Indonesia Highlights: Chief of Myanmar’s Military Junta Heads to Jakarta For ASEAN Summit | Belitong Geopark Wins UNESCO Global Geopark Designation | New Indonesian Island Found After Cyclone Seroja |

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – Jakarta is bracing for tensions as it hosts an ASEAN Summit on April 24, as the head of Myanmar’s military junta is expected to come to the high-level meeting.

Indonesia will add another landmark on the global map, after the Beliton Geopark wins UNESCO Global Geopark Designation, after it lost its bid for the designation last week.

And Indonesia will add another island to the more than 17 thousand isles that make up the archipelago, after the speck of land was sighted off East Nusa Tenggara Province’s [NTT] Rote Ndao regency in the wake of Cyclone Seroja last week. This and more on Indonesia Highlights:

Chief of Myanmar’s Military Junta Heads to Jakarta For ASEAN Summit

Indonesia and other ASEAN member countries’ ambiguous stand on the Myanmar crisis is expected to come to a head, after the chief of the country's military or Tatmadaw, General Min Aung Hlaing, will attend an ASEAN summit in Jakarta next week.

The meeting is the first encounter between Min and other ASEAN leaders, since the junta seized power from democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government last February.

The AFP news agency reported that Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs brought up Min’s attendance to the meeting on Saturday, April 17.

“Several [ASEAN] leaders have confirmed their attendance including Myanmar’s MAH [Min Aung Hlaing] ,” AFP quoted Thailand Ministry of Foreign Affairs Tanee Sangrat as saying of the meeting, which will take place in the Indonesian capital on April 24.

AFP also reported that the summit is part of efforts by ASEAN leaders to maintain communications with the junta.

Reports of Min’s attendance occurred, after an anonymous Myanmar official informed AFP that the junta will release over 23 thousand prisoners nationwide.

Human rights groups questioned the junta’s move, as they feared it is designed to “free up space for military opponents.”

According to Myanmar’s human rights NGO Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, the military junta has killed 720 people and detained up to 3,100 political prisoners as public unrest over the military's actions continued for over the past two months.

The military takeover has divided ASEAN. Indonesia and the Philippines strongly criticized the junta’s actions, while members such as Malaysia and Thailand are more equivocal.

The coup occurred, months after Suu Kyi’s National League of Democracy [NLD] political party beat military sponsored parties by a landslide during elections in November 2020. The military rejected the outcome, on grounds that the race was rigged.

Source:

https://go.kompas.com/read/2021/04/18/010459774/chief-of-myanmars-military-junta-heads-to-jakarta-for-asean-summit. 

belitonggeopark.net / Martin Lukas The idyllic island of Belitung in eastern Sumatra transformed itself from a mining area to a picturesque tourist destination in Indonesia.

Belitong Geopark Wins UNESCO Global Geopark Designation

UNESCO has designated Geopark Belitong as a Global Geopark. The Geopark's winning bid came after it was filed for the second year in a row, after it lost the first bid in July 2020.

UNESCO gave Geopark Belitong the designation during its 211th Executive Session, which was virtually held from its headquarters in Paris, France last Thursday.

“UNESCO recognized the geological diversity of Belitung Island and its surrounding areas in their decision to grant Geopark Belitong Global Geopark status,” said Belitung deputy regent Ishak Meirobie, citing a release from the Indonesian Embassy in Paris, France Friday.

“This includes its landscape, rock formations, minerals, geological as well as tectonic factors and their influence on the earth’s evolution.”

Ishak added that Geopark Belitong, which is part of the Indonesian province of Bangka Belitung, won the UNESCO Geopark status because of how the island’s geology impacted its flora, fauna and culture.

“This includes fishes like the hampala barb and Indonesian snakehead fish, as well as a variety of shrubs that the people of Belitung use to concoct herbal remedies,” he pointed out.

Geopark Belitong is Indonesia’s sixth UNESCO Global Geopark to receive the designation, after the Toba Caldera, as well as Mount Batur in Bali, Mount Ciletuh in West Java, Mount Sewu in East Java, and Rinjani in the West Nusa Tenggara island of Lombok.

Belitong Geopark will be one of UNESCO's Global Geoparks Network or GGN. Founded in 2004, GGN has 147 sites in 41 countries, including five out of 15 Indonesian national geoparks.

Source:

https://go.kompas.com/read/2021/04/18/100025574/belitong-geopark-wins-unesco-global-geopark-designation?page=all#page2. 

Dokumen Camat Loaholu Jemi Oktovianus Adu

New Indonesian Island Found After Cyclone Seroja

The provincial administration of Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) have requested the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) to research a new island off Rote Ndao Regency which emerged after Cyclone Seroja hit the area last week.

"The island sprung into existence within Rote Island [after Cyclone Seroja]," said NTT provincial administration Marius Ardu Jelamu to Kompas.com in Kupang, Saturday, April 17.

"We hope that LIPI can carry out geological research on this new landmass, as it is a one of a kind natural phenomenon."

Marius added that "the Rote Ndao regency has not notified the NTT provincial administration about the new island. We only learned about the new island from the media." He noted that the addition of a new island on the NTT map has led to a number of theories on its formation.

"The theories include the possibility that the island emerged as a result of the high waves accompanied by tornadoes during Cyclone Seroja," he asserted.

"When the cyclone passed the sea, the direction of the wind might have created a hole that caused sediment from the seabed to be raised upwards to form the new island," said Marius.

"We do not yet know whether the new island was formed by a pile of rubbish underneath or whether it was soil carried away from the mainland due to high tides," Marius continued.

Officials at Rote Ndao Regency's Loaholu district reported the first sightings of the new island. "The new island appeared on Sunday, April 4 in the wake of Cyclone Seroja," said Loaholu District Head Jemi Oktovianus Adu to Kompas.com.

The new island is planned to be named Pulau Paskah (Easter Island), as it was sighted on Easter Sunday.

Source:

https://go.kompas.com/read/2021/04/17/231235174/new-indonesian-island-found-after-cyclone-seroja?page=all#page2.