Risking Lives to Save Our Brothers
Of course, no Indonesian diplomat is bullet-proof or has more than one life. However, some tasks put them at risk of losing the only life they have.
Indonesian citizens who had been trapped in Chernihiv, Ukraine were successfully evacuated on Friday (18/3/2022).
The protection of Indonesian citizens abroad is one of Indonesia’s foreign policy priorities. The forms of this protection are very diverse, from collecting unpaid wages from Indonesian migrant worker employers, hunting down violators of migrant rights to evacuating Indonesian citizens from areas of conflict and pandemics.
The most challenging of all is to evacuate Indonesian citizens from countries at war during a pandemic that is still ongoing.
The most challenging task is to evacuate Indonesian citizens from countries at war during a pandemic that is yet to be controlled. This was seen in the evacuation of Indonesian citizens from Afghanistan in 2021 and from Ukraine recently.
The Foreign Ministry’s directorate for the protection of Indonesian citizens is responsible for this task.
“At the time, I was still in self-isolation, recovering from Covid-19,” said Regional IV Subdirectorate head Tony Wibawa last week, recalling the evacuation of hundreds of Indonesian citizens from Ukraine between 28 February and 12 March.
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Ukraine is one of almost 140 countries that Tony and his three colleagues are responsible for in the Regional IV Subdirectorate. Throughout the evacuation process, Tony and his colleagues coordinated the steps from Jakarta. Foreign Ministry citizen protection director Judha Nugraha was assigned to enter Ukraine.
The Indonesian Embassy in Kyiv and Indonesian diplomatic representatives around Ukraine were also involved in the process. Since December 2021, the staff of the Indonesian Embassy in Kyiv has been communicating with Indonesian citizens in Ukraine. The Indonesian citizens were informed to prepare a small bag containing their passport, some change of clothes and medicine if needed. Information on self-rescue efforts was also imparted in case the Russia-Ukraine war erupted.
Indonesian citizens who were evacuated from Ukraine arrived at Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Tangerang on Thursday (3/3/2022). The government evacuated the 80 Indonesian citizens by plane from Romania. There are still 14 Indonesian citizens detained in Ukraine, of which 5 are already preparing to cross to Poland. The rest are still trapped in areas surrounded by Russian troops.
The first missile explosion
The Russia-Ukraine war eventually began on Thursday (24/2) morning. The coordinator for information and sociocultural functions at the Indonesian Embassy in Kyiv, Erna Herlina, had been awake since the first missile exploded in Kyiv. At the time, she and other staff at the embassy had to immediately contact all Indonesian citizens living in various parts of Kyiv to quickly gather at the embassy.
Not all Indonesian citizens in Ukraine lived in Kyiv, however. Others lived in Chernihiv, Kherson, Dnipro and Odesa. Even those who lived in Kyiv were unable to immediately go to the embassy, as some had their passports withheld by their employer. The staff of the Indonesian Embassy then had to contact the employers and ask them to return the passports.
“Many were confused because they did not have their passports and had not received their salary,” said Erna.
Inside the shelter at the Indonesian Embassy in Kyiv, loud banging and vibrations caused by the explosion of bombs, mortars, rockets and missiles had become a daily occurrence. Gunshots were heard almost non-stop all day.
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In that situation, because the Indonesian Embassy was unable to accommodate everyone, some stayed at Wisma Duta. Every day, several staff of the embassy traveled back and forth between the embassy and Wisma Duta to deliver various necessities for those who took shelter.
According to Erna, various evacuation scenarios had been prepared since December 2021. However, war developments forcibly changed these scenarios. From initially heading to Poland by buses driven by Ukrainians, the first batch of evacuees was forced to go to Romania via Moldova with non-Ukrainian drivers.
This change was made because the initial evacuation route became a battlefield. Additionally, prospective drivers were subject to military service. Since the war broke out, all Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60 have been required to join the civil defense forces.
Among the explosions of bombs and the sound of Russian and Ukrainian bullets, there were Indonesians who remained in Ukraine. Nine Indonesian citizens are still taking refuge in Chernihiv. They took refuge in the basement, along with 30 local residents including children to escape the Russian attack on Ukraine
Together with dozens of Indonesian citizens, the staff of the Indonesian Embassy in Kyiv was finally able to begin the evacuation to Romania. On the way, they passed squads of armed men who kept stopping vehicles. Meanwhile, various war vehicles continued to head towards Kyiv. There were also many vehicles and buildings damaged by gunfire or explosions.
“I only focused on calming the evacuated. I did not pay any more attention to what was outside of the bus,” said Erna.
Shot
Evacuating Indonesian citizens from areas in conflict is not always easy. In fact, lives are at stake. This was experienced by Abdul Kholik Zahron, a former staff member of the Indonesian Embassy in Damascus. The car he was traveling in was shot at by an unknown perpetrator. The incident occurred when he was trying to evacuate a number of Indonesian citizens from the civil war zone in Syria.
Abdul Kholik was involved in a series of evacuations throughout 2013-2015. In the midst of war, he and other staff of the Indonesian Embassy in Damascus often had to drive out to battle zones to evacuate Indonesian citizens.
Diplomats stationed in conflict areas or areas with heavy workloads require mental recovery when they return to Jakarta. Judha said that the clinic at the Foreign Ministry had a psychological service. Some diplomats use the service to recover from acute mental fatigue due to their work at various Indonesian Embassies and Consulate General.
Every time we call, we are greeted with expectations. Once the information of the death is delivered, we would suddenly hear hysterical cries.
Judha admits that one of the toughest moments was when an Indonesian citizen was killed abroad. Diplomats feel a sense of failure despite having tried to save the Indonesian citizen’s life. It was even harder to break the news to the family.
“Usually, every time we call, we are greeted with expectations. Once the information of the death is delivered, we would suddenly hear hysterical cries,” he said.
If all of this happened repeatedly, one can only imagine how difficult it would be to recover from the psychological burden that diplomats have to endure.
This article was translated by Kesya Adhalia.
