Indonesia Highlights: Indonesian Navy Declares the Submarine KRI Nanggala-402 Sunk | ASEAN Condemns the Deteriorating Situation in Myanmar | Indonesia Refuses Entry to 32 Indian Nationals |

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com – Indonesia officially declared the KRI Nanggala-402 submarine sunk, after intensive searches by the country’s navy as well as foreign vessels failed to find the ship, days after it was last located off the north coast of Bali.

ASEAN has condemned the deteriorating situation in Myanmar, prompting Indonesia’s President Jokowi and other leaders to draw up five agreements to resolve tensions in the country.

And Indonesia has refused entry to 32 Indian nationals, as the government’s started to apply its temporary ban on the country’s citizens, following a surge of Covid-19 cases there. This and more on Indonesia Highlights:

KOMPAS/CYPRIANUS ANTO SAPTOWALYONO The Indonesian Navy Submarine KRI Nanggala-402 enters the Indah Kiat docks in the port city of Cilegon in Banten province in this file photo. The KRI Nanggala-402 has gone missing during exercises off the northern coast of Bali on Wednesday (21/4/2021)

Indonesian Navy Declares the Submarine KRI Nanggala-402 Sunk

The Indonesian military has confirmed that the submarine KRI Nanggala-402 has sunk off the northern coast of Bali, days after it lost contact with the Second Fleet based in Surabaya, East Java on Wednesday, April 21.

"The KRI Nanggala-402 was subsunk [sank] following a 72-hour search,” said Indonesian military chief Air Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto on Saturday.

“The live support oxygen on the submarine [in case it blacked out] would only have lasted until the early hours of [Saturday, April 24]. Our findings are based on an oil spill and debris which is proof that the submarine has sunk.”

Indonesian Navy [TNI AL] Chief of Staff Admiral Yudo Margono still held out hope.

“We have reason to believe that KRI Nanggala-402 did not experience a blackout when it lost contact and sunk off Bali. The last visual [of KRI Nanggala-402] by [Indonesian Navy] Kopaska frogmen saw that the ship’s lights are still on,” he said in Denpasar, Bali.

“If the power is still on in KRI Nanggala-402, then it has enough oxygen for at least five days. But the submarine has experienced cracks as it descended to 700-800 meters,” he noted.

He noted that the submarine was detected at a depth of 850 meters, further than its designed maximum depth of 500 meters. Yudo said the Navy has two alternatives to recover the submarine.

“The first option is to insert hoses onto pipes on the submarine, then pull up the vessel. The second option is to use miniature robot submarines to bring the KRI Nanggala-402 to the surface.”

He added that Singapore’s navy has the technology to reach any vessels to depths of 900 to 1000 meters through the use of the vessel MV Swift Rescue.

The US Navy also sent aid by deploying a P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft. The Indonesian Navy has deployed 21 ships and helicopters to search for KRI Nanggala-402.

The Cakra-class submarine lost contact with the Second Fleet based in Surabaya, East Java, shortly after it received the order to submerge and participate in drills to fire torpedoes.

The submarine sank 95 kilometers off the northern coast of Bali with 53 men on board. The KRI Nanggala-402 was commissioned into the Indonesian navy in 1981.

Source:

https://go.kompas.com/read/2021/04/25/021026174/indonesian-navy-declares-the-submarine-kri-nanggala-402-sunk?page=all#page2. 

AFP PHOTO/MIN HTAT SAN A clash between protesters and security forces in Yangon, Myanmar

ASEAN Condemns the Deteriorating Situation in Myanmar

ASEAN has closed its high level summit in Jakarta on the Myanmar crisis by delivering a strong condemnation of the country’s military coup last February and the resulting violence in its wake over the past two months.

The summit’s host, Indonesian President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo, Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah in his capacity as ASEAN chairman, and other leaders hammered out five agreements to resolve the Myanmar crisis during the ASEAN Leaders Meeting or ALM summit on Saturday.

“First, the violence in Myanmar must stop and that all parties must exercise self-restraint,” said the ALM in its press release on Saturday. “Second, the conflicting sides must exercise restraint to reduce tensions and bring about inclusive dialogue.”

“Thirdly, ASEAN needs to send a special envoy, namely its Secretary-General and the ASEAN chairman country, to facilitate dialogue with the conflicting parties in Myanmar.”

“Fourth, ASEAN should send humanitarian aid to Myanmar via the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management or AHA Centre. Fifth, an ASEAN special envoy and delegation will visit Myanmar to meet all parties in the conflict.”

President Jokowi highlighted the need to abide by the agreements, as “democracy, stability and peace must be restored in Myanmar. The interests of the people of Myanmar must always be prioritized.”

Sultan Hassanal reiterated Jokowi. “We are concerned about the situation in Myanmar, not least reports of loss of life and escalation of violence. We also hear the calls to release all political prisoners, some of whom are foreign nationals.”

Myanmar’s military has killed more than 700 people and imprisoned thousands of others since General Min overthrew democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi’s governing National League of Democracy [NLD] during a coup on February 1.

The general engineered the coup after the NLD decisively beat parties backed by the military during elections last November 2020.

Source:

https://go.kompas.com/read/2021/04/25/070928974/asean-condemns-the-deteriorating-situation-in-myanmar?page=all#page2 

KOMPAS.com/MUHAMMAD NAUFAL Soekarno-Hatta International Airport's Terminal 3

Indonesia Refuses Entry to 32 Indian Nationals

Indonesian immigration officials in Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport has refused to allow 32 Indian citizens from entering the country, days after an influx of Indian nationals escaping the worsening Covid-19 outbreak there raised concerns among Indonesian politicians.

Soekarno-Hatta Immigration office head Romy Yudianto confirmed the report. “We refused to grant entry to 32 Indian nationals, as they failed to meet the criteria to enter Indonesia,” he said on Saturday, April 24. He did not elaborate further.

“The [Indian citizens] arrived on an Emirates flight. We will put them on a flight [back to India] on the same airline in the early morning of Sunday, April 25.”
Ministry of Justice and Human Director General Jhoni Ginting said their repatriation is part of the government’s decision to temporarily bar entry of Indian nationas to Indonesia, so as to safeguard Indonesia from the Covid-19 outbreak sweeping through India.

India has seen a surge in Covid-19 cases recently. The country’s medical system all but collapsed, as hospitals have to deal with more than 300 thousand cases daily over the past few weeks.

Source:

https://nasional.kompas.com/read/2021/04/24/21013301/32-wn-india-di-bandara-soekarno-hatta-ditolak-masuk-ke-indonesia.