Indonesia Regrets Shootout During Handover of ASEAN Aid in Myanmar

Labuan Bajo, MINA – Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo regretted the exchange of fire during the delivery of humanitarian aid in Myanmar.

“This is a problem of access. Yesterday, the AHA Center accompanied by an ASEAN monitoring team was going to hand over humanitarian aid, but it is very unfortunate that on the way there was a shootout,” Jokowi said at a press conference in West Manggarai Regency, East Nusa Tenggara Province on Monday.

According to President Jokowi, various efforts have been made by Indonesia and through its chairmanship in ASEAN it has been able to facilitate The ASEAN Coordinating Center for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management (AHA Centre).

After a long delay due to access problems, the President said the joint needs assessment was able to be completed.

Previously, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Retno Marsudi, had also explained that there were two phases of humanitarian assistance for Myanmar.

The first stage is related to life saving, which has been completed because it is related to assistance in handling COVID-19, and the second stage is life sustaining.

“This second phase had experienced obstacles due to the lack of access to the AHA Center to reach people in need, especially in areas outside the control of the Myanmar military,” said Retno.

Indonesia reiterated that the violence in Myanmar should stop immediately. According to President Joko Widodo, the current situation in the country does not make any party win, but only makes the people become victims.

For this reason, the President emphasized that Indonesia’s chair in ASEAN this year will continue to push for the implementation of the five-point agreement or “Five-Point Consensus”. One of the points in the agreement is related to humanitarian assistance. (R/RE1)

Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)