Jakarta Globe, Harry Jacques & Josua Gantan, Mar 19, 2014
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| Students stand next to a giant mural featuring missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 displayed on the grounds of their school in Manila’s financial district of Makati on March 18, 2014. (AFP Photo) |
Jakarta.
International search efforts for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 hit
a setback after Indonesia failed to give clearance for six foreign aircraft to
fly over national airspace into the Indian Ocean on Tuesday in spite of
assurances that Indonesia’s armed forces had extended its ”fullest support” to
the continuing search.
The
Indonesian Military (TNI) issued approval for search planes to fly through
national airspace earlier this week, but delays in subsequent sign-offs by the
Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Transportation and the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs forced three countries’ search flights to remain grounded in Malaysia,
testing relations between two countries well used to locking diplomatic horns.
“For the
flight permits to be given out, there needed to be approvals from three
different government institutions — the defense ministry, the transportation
ministry, and the foreign affairs ministry,” TNI spokesman Rear Adm. Iskandar
Sitompul told the Jakarta Globe. “Government institutions other than the TNI
had to work on this, too, so the permit was stuck.”
Some 26
countries have banded together since March 8 to search for the missing Boeing
777-200ER over a search area spanning some 22 million square nautical miles,
and Indonesia has assumed an important role as the gateway country out of
Malaysia to one of two search areas. The southern corridor begins west of Banda
Aceh and takes in a vast arc past Western Australia into some of the most
remote expanse of the Indian Ocean with an average water depth of around 4,000
meters.
“It
probably is the largest peacetime armada of assets and satellite
information-sharing that we have ever seen for a rescue and search operation,”
Malaysia’s Acting Transport Minister Hishammuddin Hussein said, as quoted by Reuters.
The
Indonesian government has so far lent 11 assets to the ongoing search,
according to the Malaysian Ambassador to Indonesia.
“We have
one aircraft — a Boeing 727-200 from the TNI Air Force,” Ambassador Datuk Seri
Zahrain Mohamed Hashim told the Jakarta Globe. “We have one Cassa C-212
aircraft, which belongs to the Navy, and five ships also from the Navy.
“We also
have one helicopter and three rescue boats from the National Search and Rescue
Agency. That’s what we have on record.”
The BBC
reported on Tuesday that the southern search had been hampered after the
central government banned six planes from flying over Indonesian territory.
Four
aircraft from the Japanese Self Defense Force, including Hercules and P-3 Orion
planes, as well as a South Korean P-3 Orion and a US P-3 Orion were grounded in
Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.
“We were
supposed to take off 7 or 8 hours ago originally to head out over the Indian
Ocean south of Java and to search a grid pattern for signs of the missing
Malaysian airline,” Rupert Wingfield Hayes, a senior BBC reporter in Kuala Lumpur, said on Tuesday. “All of these aircraft are sitting on the ground.
“There is
no search, no aerial search anyway, going on from Malaysia [on Tuesday]. The
reason for that is that we have been waiting all day for the Indonesian
government to give the foreign military aircraft permission to overfly it’s
territory and it simply has not come.”
The
Malaysian Embassy’s First Secretary Khairul Tazril Tarmizi would not be drawn on
the delay in granting clearance, saying on Wednesday only that the Malaysian
government’s position regarding Indonesia’s cooperation remained unchanged.
“Indonesia
has been fully cooperative,” Tazril told the Jakarta Globe. “The ambassador’s
view is still the same as [on Tuesday].”
The State
Palace said it was unaware of the issue when contacted on Wednesday, adding
that it would be discussed at a meeting later in the day. But according to Rear
Adm. Iskandar, the TNI had tried to expedite the permits. The delay in allowing
the six aircraft to take off was a consequence of the labyrinthine bureaucracy
of other government bodies, he said.
‘Fullest
support’
“We want to
get things straight — they [the grounded planes] have received their permits
from the TNI,” Iskandar said. “It is incorrect to say that the TNI did not give
them the permits. This is a humanitarian problem and it is only right that we
help as fast as we could. The TNI’s
principle is that we will give our fullest support. You can see that we sent
five warships to the Malacca Strait to help.”
Indonesian
Naval commander Adm. Marsetio spoke with his counterpart in the Malaysian Navy,
Admiral Tan Sri Abdul Aziz, and dispatched the five ships to the Strait of
Malacca on Mar. 9.
“[The Mar.
18 flights] were just delayed, we did not reject the permits,” Iskandar said.
“There is a mechanism; it was just a bureaucratic problem. We never intend to
slow down the process. Please get this right, the TNI never intended to make
the process difficult.”
The
Indonesian armed forces said there should be no additional overfly clearance
issues as the search continued.
“I have
checked this with the intelligence, all the grounded flights have been granted
access,” Iskandar said. “By now, they can operate.”
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| A Chinese family member of a passenger on board the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 is brought into a room outside the media conference area at a hotel in Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Mar. 19, 2014. (Reuters Photo) |
Background
checks
While
Indonesia’s nebulous bureaucracy grounded search flights from taking off from
Malaysia to search into the southern corridor on Tuesday, the Malaysian
government said there had been no holdup in Indonesia’s willingness to supply
background information held by the country’s intelligence agency on the seven
Indonesian passengers on flight MH370.
The
passenger manifest lists the Indonesian travelers as Firman Siregar, 25;
Ferryindra Suadaya, 42; Herryindra Suadaya, 35; Lo Sugianto, 42; Indrasuria
Tanurisam, 57; Vinny Chynthyatio, 47 and Willy Surijanto Wang, 53.
Only Russia
and Ukraine had failed to hand over the results of background checks conducted
by national intelligence agencies on Wednesday, according to a tweet by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak. The countries that did submit reports of
their nationals abroad MH370 found nothing suspicious in their investigations.
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| Indonesian National Police chief Gen. Sutarman, center, addresses a press conference in Jakarta on March 19, 2014, clearing seven Indonesian passengers on board the missing Malaysia Airlines passenger jet of terrorism links. (JG Photo/Ezra Sihite) |
Sidney
Jones, a leading expert on terrorism in Southeast Asia and director of the
Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, told Reuters on March 16 that she would be ”extremely surprised if any group from Indonesia, the
Philippines or Malaysia itself would be directly involved.” A subsequent
statement from the Indonesian National Police ruled out any involvement in
terrorism by any of the seven Indonesian passengers.
“None of
the seven passengers have been involved in a banned organization.” National
Police chief Gen. Sutarman said at the State Palace on Wednesday. ”We will give
full support… so that Malaysia can have access to the information.”
Malaysian
officials in Indonesia said they were working with the Indonesian intelligence
agency to conduct further background checks on the seven Indonesian passengers.
“The
screening of the passengers’ background is being done by the police, Interpol
and the CIA,” Zahrain said. They are all
involved — it’s an international issue. Indonesia has been cooperative in
this.”
Cabinet
meeting
The
Malaysian Prime Minister and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
spoke on the phone earlier this week to discuss cooperation efforts, while
defense minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said that a meeting of the cabinet chaired
by the president was scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. on Wednesday to further
discuss the search for MH370.
The outcome
of this meeting could not be confirmed by deadline.
Purnomo
told reporters on Wednesday that Indonesia had not detected MH370 on either its
civilian or military radar systems.
“[On the
morning of Mar. 8] we did not get detection from any of our radars,” Purnomo
said. “There was no detection of any strange plane; there was none.”
Despite the
delay in allowing six aircraft to leave their stands in Kuala Lumpur on
Tuesday, the Malaysian government said that it remained satisfied by
cooperation with Jakarta.
“The search
will continue until we find the plane,” the Malaysian ambassador said. “How
long that takes, I don’t know — we don’t know where the aircraft is. The best
thing now is to pray.”
—Additional
reporting by Reuters
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| The family of MH370 passenger Firman Chandra Siregar watch television at their house in Medan, North Sumatra, on March 9, 2014. (EPA Photo) |
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