Nasheman

India's largest selling Urdu weekly, now also in English

You are here: Home / Archives for Indonesia

Hundreds of Rohingya refugees rescued off Indonesian coast

by

About 400 refugees saved by fishermen as SE Asian nations agree to provide temporary shelter to thousands still at sea.

Witnesses in Aceh said that many of the rescued migrants were in tears when they made it to land [Reuters]

Witnesses in Aceh said that many of the rescued migrants were in tears when they made it to land [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

About 400 refugees have been rescued by local fishermen in the Strait of Malacca, off Indonesia’s Aceh province, after their stricken boat was reportedly turned away numerous times from the Thai and Malaysian coasts by authorities.

The rescue occurred hours before the governments of Malaysia and Indonesia issued a statement saying they would “continue to provide humanitarian assistance to those 7,000 irregular migrants still at sea” and offer them temporary shelter, provided they were resettled and repatriated within a year.

Khairul Nova, a search and rescue official, said the rescue took place at 2am local time on Wednesday (19:00 GMT Tuesday) and those saved included woman and children. Those rescued were taken to Simpang Tiga village, in East Aceh district, he said.

Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen reported that the rescued boat was the same one that made international headlines last week when it was found floating off Thailand’s coast, after its captain and crew had apparently fled.

Witnesses in Aceh said that many of the rescued migrants were in tears when they made it to land, with many very sick and weak.

Migrants told Al Jazeera they had been sent away by the Thai navy on three occasions and Malaysian authorities twice.

The second time they were rebuffed by Malaysian authorities, they say they were held at gunpoint and told that their ship would be bombed if they did not turn around.

About 1,500 Muslim Rohingya from Myanmar, fleeing persecution, and Bangladeshis, seeking to escape grinding poverty, have already arrived in Aceh in recent days after being abandoned by people smugglers.

They are among several thousands who have made it to land in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand after being dumped by smugglers following the disruption of long-established human-trafficking routes.

Malaysia’s foreign minister hosted his Indonesian and Thai counterparts on Wednesday for urgent talks on the refugee crisis, with pressure mounting on them to help thousands of starving refugees.

The three nations have sparked outrage by turning away vessels overloaded with migrants.

In the statement issued after the talks, the three government agreed to “continue to uphold their responsibilities and obligations under international law”.

The statement did not say that Thailand would join Malaysia and Indonesia in providing temporary shelter to the thousands of migrants still believed to be drifting on boats in the Strait of Malacca and nearby international waters.

“[We] call upon the international community to uphold their responsibility and urgently share the burden of providing the necessary support to Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand in addressing the problem,” the statement said.

The three countries requested financial support to provide shelter to the migrants and said “the international community will take responsibility for the repatriation of the irregular migrants to their countries of origin or resettlement to third countries within … one year”.

Myanmar said on Wednesday it was “ready to provide humanitarian assistance” to refugees, in its most conciliatory comments yet.

South east Asia’s migrant boat crisis is a global responsibility

by

A Thai vessel provides supplies to Rohingya migrants on an abandoned boat. EPA/STR

A Thai vessel provides supplies to Rohingya migrants on an abandoned boat. EPA/STR

by Kirsten McConnachie, The Conversation

Thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants have been left stranded at sea, after a crackdown against people traffickers in Thailand prompted dozens of boat owners and crew to abandon their human cargo.

Those at sea have been left without food and water, and will certainly die if they are not rescued soon. Now that more than 2,000 people have been rescued or arrived at their shores, Indonesian, Malaysian and Thai authorities have united in refusing to rescue further boats and claiming that they will turn back any more arrivals.

Their refusal to accept Rohingya boats mirrors the early years of the Indochina refugee crisis, when Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand collectively refused to grant asylum to arrivals from Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. After thousands of people had been pushed back by land and sea, that situation was eventually resolved with an agreement for permanent resettlement of refugees to western nations, primarily the US.

But that was a very different time, shaped by Cold War politics that are now a distant memory. Today, with the European Union showing little sympathy for boat arrivals on its own shores, a coordinated international response seems highly improbable.

Wrong answer

Thailand’s crackdown on migrant traffickers followed the discovery of a mass grave in a suspected trafficking camp in southern Thailand. But while trafficking is undoubtedly a very real risk, Rohingya migration is not only or even primarily an issue of trafficking, and pushing back boats is not the answer.

Many of those now stranded at sea are not voluntary migrants but refugees who face persecution if returned to Myanmar. As in the Mediterranean, ending boat migration in south-east Asia will require shifting the focus from smugglers and traffickers to address the drivers of forced migration. For the Rohingya, that means tackling statelessness and human rights violationsinside Myanmar, and discrimination throughout south east Asia.

This is obviously easier said than done. The crisis facing the Rohingya in Myanmar is an entrenched, intractable problem with few avenues for positive reform. Rohingya communities have been denied citizenship for decades and face draconian restrictions on travel, movement and marriage. This has been compounded recently by the cancellation of all Temporary Registration Certificates, the only identity document that most Rohingya possess, and a document required to vote in the upcoming elections.

Myanmar’s Rohingya fear for their survival. Those who have fled to Bangladesh have fared little better, with little or no access to education and health services and very restricted access to the UN and other international agencies. These conditions have forced migration to other countries: to Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia but also to India, Nepal and even Saudi Arabia.

What can ASEAN do?

To stop the immediate humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in the Andaman Sea and Malacca Strait, and to develop a lasting regional solution, member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) need to step in.

Until now, ASEAN’s policy of non-interference in the internal affairs of a member state has prevented regional discussion of Rohingya statelessness and discrimination. The current crisis clearly shows that this is not a matter of Myanmar’s internal affairs but is affecting many other countries in the region. ASEAN members have a stake in resolving this situation and must cooperate in doing so.

Rohingya migrants in East Aceh, Indonesia. EPA/Hotli Simanjuntak

A meeting has been arranged in Bangkok for May 29 2015, but those at sea will certainly die if no action is taken before then. There is an urgent need to stop boat pushbacks and begin emergency rescue of those stranded.

In the longer term, the focus must be on improving the treatment of Rohingya people inside Myanmar. Full citizenship for stateless Rohingya is difficult to envisage in Myanmar’s current political climate, but there are other possibilities. ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights have outlined a number of constructive suggestions, beginning with providing a mandate to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights to investigate the situation and officially monitor Myanmar’s response.

Practical action that should be taken by Myanmar includes improving basic living conditions of Rohingya communities in Myanmar by ensuring access to clean water, adequate nutrition and health care and appropriate shelter materials. Administrative and legal reforms should end discriminatory restrictions on Rohingya people (such as restrictions on movement and marriage) and reinstate the temporary registration cards that were recently withdrawn. Crimes of discrimination and hate speech should be prosecuted, not permitted to flourish as they have until now.

A global responsibility

ASEAN member states have a key role to play, but this is not solely an ASEAN responsibility. Many states have flocked to provide aid and assistance to Myanmar since a process of political reform began in 2011. Those states are now entitled to demand some return for their investment, in the shape of an improved protection environment for the Rohingya and for other ethnic groups inside Myanmar.

In the meantime, a massive humanitarian crisis is unfolding in south east Asia. Thousands of people remain stranded at sea, and they will certainly die if they are not rescued soon. But as in the Mediterranean, tragic suffering could still be averted if those with the power to act would only show some moral leadership and begin the required rescue.

Kirsten McConnachie is a Research Fellow in Refugee Studies at University of Oxford.

The Conversation

Philippines may open doors to Rohingya migrants

by

Government indicates willingness to provide welfare for boat people, after other SE Asian nations reject new migrants.

Students in Indonesia have protested the government's policy to reject further Rohingya migrants [EPA]

Students in Indonesia have protested the government’s policy to reject further Rohingya migrants [EPA]

by Al Jazeera

Manila: The Philippine government has said it is willing to open the country’s doors to minority Rohingya migrants who have fled Myanmar and Bangladesh, saying that it is committed to the United Nations pledge to protect asylum seekers and refugees.

“Let us not fall short of providing humanitarian relief and assistance that is asked of us, as we pride ourselves to be a compassionate and hospitable people,” Senator Paolo Aquino said in a statement issued on Tuesday.

“We call on the proper international agencies to process the legal issues immediately for the welfare of the boat people,” said Aquino, a cousin and political ally of President Benigno Aquino.

The statement came after Philippine Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said on Monday that the country has an obligation to admit and protect asylum seekers, even when the refugees do not have documents to prove their status.

“If there are boat people who come to us seeking the protection of our government, there is a process, there are existing mechanisms on how to handle these refugees or asylum seekers,” de Lima said in a statement.

The Philippine justice secretary’s remarks came after a spokesman of the president was earlier quoted as saying that the refugees could be turned away because they do not have the necessary documents.

The statements were issued as other Southeast Asian nations continued to reject taking in more migrants stranded on boats off Southeast Asia’s shores, despite growing international pressure.

Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia have been in high-level talks in an attempt to solve the refugee crisis after boats holding more than 2,000 migrants, including many Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshis, landed in their countries in recent weeks.

UN agencies urged the three regional powers on Tuesday to step up their sea rescue operations and let desperate migrants reach land.

In a joint statement, joined by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the agencies called on the three countries to stop trying to push boats away from their territorial waters.

Authorities should “provide for effective, predictable disembarkation to a place of safety with adequate and humane reception conditions” and establish screening procedures to identify those in need of international protection as refugees, the statement added.

The Philippines has a long history of hosting refugees from other Asian countries, and as far as Europe.

During World War II, then Philippine President Manuel Quezon ordered the admission of 1,500 Jewish refugees fleeing from the Holocaust in Europe.

Following the war and the communist victory in the civil war in China, thousands of Chinese refugees also settled in the Philippines.

In the 1970s, as Vietnam was engaged in a civil war, the Philippines also provided sanctuary to Vietnamese “boat people” building a Vietnamese village in the western island of Palawan. Most of the refugees were eventually resettled in other countries, many of them in the US.

About 900 Rohingya Muslims land in Indonesia and Thailand

by

Almost 800 found in the middle of sea near Aceh province of Indonesia as Thai navy saves 106 refugees on a small island.

In recent days, about 2,000 refugees landed in Malaysia and Indonesia [Geutanyue Foundation]

In recent days, about 2,000 refugees landed in Malaysia and Indonesia [Geutanyue Foundation]

by Al Jazeera

About 900 migrants have landed on the shores of Indonesia and Thailand after being adrift at sea for weeks, authorities said.

The migrants are among the few who have successfully sneaked past a wall of resistance mounted by Southeast Asian countries who are turning them away.

Several thousand refugees from Bangladesh and Myanmar – fleeing either poverty or persecution – are believed to be adrift on boats in the Andaman Sea in what has become a spiralling humanitarian crisis, reported the Associated Press news agency.

In recent days, about 2,000 landed in Malaysia and Indonesia, but both countries then said they could not accept any more.

“What do you expect us to do?” asked Malaysian Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Jafaar on Thursday. “We have been very nice to the people who broke into our border. We have treated them humanely, but they cannot be flooding our shores like this.”

“We have to send the right message that they are not welcome here.”

Fisherman towed two boats to Indonesia’s eastern Aceh province early on Friday – one with nearly 700 people and another carrying 47, police said.

A search-and-rescue official said hundreds were being housed in a warehouse.

“The latest information we have is about 794 people were found in the middle of the sea and brought ashore by fishermen at 5am,” Khairul Nova, the official in the town of Langsa in Aceh, told the Reuters news agency by telephone.

“They are now in a warehouse by the port as a temporary arrangement.”

Police sad the larger boat was on the verge of sinking when fishermen brought it to the fishing village of Lagsa.

“Some of the people told police they were abandoned at sea for days and Malaysian authorities had already turned their boat away,” said Lieutenant Colonel Sunarya, who like many Indonesians uses only one name.

He said everyone aboard was weak from hunger and dehydrated.

About 25km south of Langsa, fisherman rescued the smaller boat carrying 47 Rohingya migrants, also dehydrated and hungry, said Aceh Tamiang police chief Dicky Sandoni. They were brought to a beach at Kuala Seruway village in Aceh’s Tamiang district.

Rohingya migrants

Separately, the Thai Navy found a group of 106 people, mostly men but including 15 women and two children, on a small island off the coast of Phang Nga province, an area known for its world-class scuba diving.

“It’s not clear how they ended up on the island,” said Prayoon Rattanasenee, the Phang Nga provincial governor. The group said they were Rohingya migrants from Myanmar.

“We are in the process of identifying if they were victims of human trafficking.”

The plight of Myanmar’s 1.3 million Rohingya has worsened recently and in the last three years more than 120,000 members of the Muslim minority, who are intensely persecuted in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, have boarded ships to flee to other countries, paying huge sums to human traffickers.

But faced with a regional crackdown on human trafficking, some captains and smugglers have abandoned their ships, leaving an estimated 6,000 refugees to fend for themselves, according to aid workers and human rights groups.

Indonesia to 'turn back every boat carrying Rohingyas'

by

Military says it would not allow boats as nearly 2,000 migrants arrive in Indonesia and Malaysia in past two days.

Indonesian paramedic assists a migrant child at a clinic after being rescued from a boat in Indonesia's Aceh province [Reuters]

Indonesian paramedic assists a migrant child at a clinic after being rescued from a boat in Indonesia’s Aceh province [Reuters]

by Al Jazeera

Indonesian military has told Al Jazeera that they will send back any boat with Rohingya migrants entering its waters as a vessel carrying hundreds of migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh was turned away towards Malaysia.

Fuad Basya, Indonesian military spokesman, said that they pulled back a boat “full of people in dire conditions, smelling bad, some were screaming”, adding that they provided the migrants with water, food, medicine and fuel.

AFP news agency reported that the boat carrying an estimated 400 migrants was intercepted on the coast of northwestern Aceh region on Monday.

Meanwhile, rights groups have urged regional governments to save thousands of migrants believed to be stranded at sea in Southeast Asia and at the risk of death.

An estimated 6,000 to 8,000 Bangladeshis and Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar remain trapped in crowded, wooden boats, officials and activists said on Tuesday.

Nearly 2,000 people have reached Malaysia and Indonesia in the past two days after Thailand announced a crackdown on smuggling routes. They were rescued from overcrowded boats after being stranded at sea.

Myanmar shirks responsibility

Even as a large number of migrants originated from Myanmar, its government said that they will not take responsibility for migrants who are not their own citizens.

“If it is true and proven that they are from Myanmar, we will take responsibility for them. But not the Bangladeshis,” Zaw Htay, the director of Myanmar’s president’s office told Al Jazeera.

“Some of the Rohingya people may have come from Bangladesh. We can’t be responsible for them. But we do not accept the name Rohingya. They are Bengali,” Htay added referring to Myanmar’s long-persecuted Rohingya Muslim community.

The Rohingya, who are Muslim, have for decades suffered from state-sanctioned discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, which considers them illegal settlers from Bangladesh even though their families have lived there for generations.

Those comments come a day after more than a 1,000 migrants, including children from both countries, were detained in Malaysia after they arrived in the popular Malaysian resort island of Langkawi.

The police chief in Langkawi told Al Jazeera’s Karishma Vyas that 1,158 people were being held on the island. At least 672 are Bangladeshi, and around 486 of them are Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar.

At least 100 women and 60 children were among them. The migrants were in a very poor state, suffering from dehydration as well as hunger.

The police say they believe the captain as well as the other traffickers on the three boats had escaped in another vessel and left the migrants to their own devices.

Regional problem

The Arakan Project, a group advocating for the rights of Rohingya, has said as many as 8,000 people may be adrift.

Chris Lewa, the director of Arakan Project, told Al Jazeera that “there were at least three other boats near Langkawi island in Malaysia – one of them in distress” on Monday night.

She said that a big concern is where these migrants could go, and despite this being a regional problem, if there was any country willing to deal with them.

Earlier, the International Organisation for Migration called on Southeast Asian governments to find and rescue the migrants trapped at sea.

Joe Lowry, a spokesman for the organisation, told Al Jazeera that some of the migrants may have been at sea since early March.

He said that from what they’ve seen so far, many of the migrants who make it to the shore are in poor health, with some suffering from vitamin B deficiency and acute malnutrition.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said 25,000 people are believed to have embarked from January to March, double the previous year’s pace, and that an estimated 300 had died.

Nearly 2,000 people have reached Malaysia and Indonesia in the past two days [Reuters]

Indonesia executes drug smugglers by firing squad

by

Executions of eight out of nine convicts carried out despite plea by Australia to investigate judicial corruption.

A coffin bearing the body of Indonesian drug convict Zainal Abidin was buried in Cilacap several hours after his execution [AFP]

A coffin bearing the body of Indonesian drug convict Zainal Abidin was buried in Cilacap several hours after his execution [AFP]

by Al Jazeera

Indonesia has executed eight out of nine drug convicts by firing squad despite last-ditch appeals by Australia’s foreign minister for a stay of execution so that claims of corruption during the trials of two Australian prisoners could be investigated.

The executions were carried out after midnight (17:30 GMT) at Besi prison on Nusakambangan Island on Tuesday, after the inmates were given 72-hours notice.

Australia on Wednesday took the unprecedented step of recalling its ambassador to Indonesia in protest against the executions, in which two of its citizens, Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan, were killed.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott said the relationship with Jakarta “has suffered as a result of what’s been done over the last few hours”.

“These executions are both cruel and unnecessary. Cruel because both Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran spent some decade in jail before being executed, and unnecessary because both of these young Australians were fully rehabilitated while in prison,” Abbott told reporters in Canberra.

“We respect Indonesia’s sovereignty but we do deplore what’s been done and this cannot be simply business as usual,” he said.

Over the weekend, authorities had asked the nine convicts, which included four Nigerian men, one man each from Brazil and Indonesia and a Filipino woman for their last wishes.

However, the execution of Filipina Mary Jane Veloso was postponed at the last minute after someone suspected of recruiting her surrendered to police in the Philippines, the attorney general’s spokesman told the Reuters news agency late on Tuesday.

“The execution of Mary Jane Veloso has been postponed because there was a request from the Philippine president related to a perpetrator suspected of human trafficking who surrendered herself in the Philippines,” Tony Spontana, spokesman for the attorney general said.

“Mary Jane has been asked to testify.”

Earlier, Filipino migrants had rallied in Hong Kong on behalf of Velose – a 30-year-old mother of two whose  supporters said was tricked  into carrying a suitcase loaded with heroin.

Al Jazeera’s Step Vaessen, reporting from Cilacap in Indonesia, said while there was an outpouring of joy among Filipinos that Velose had been spared, there would be a different reaction from Australia after Jakarta rejected last-ditch pleas for clemency.

“The executions could cause a diplomatic fallout between Australia and Indonesia similar to earlier this year when the Netherlands and Brazil recalled their ambassadors after their nationals were killed,” she said.

Australia had mounted a sustained campaign to save its citizens, who have been on death row for almost a decade.

Chan and Sukumaran were the Australian ringleaders of the so-called “Bali Nine” heroin trafficking group whoe were arrested at the main airport on the holiday island in April 2005 for trying to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin to Australia.

The seven other members of the Bali Nine, all Australians, were jailed in Indonesia and did not face the death penalty.

White coffins

The families of the Australian convicts had paid an anguished final visit to their loved ones earlier on Tuesday, wailing in grief as ambulances carrying empty white coffins arrived at the prison.

Julie Bishop, Australia’s foreign minister, told media earlier in the day that she had asked for a stay in their executions, saying allegations in the Australian media that their judges had requested money to commute the death sentences were “very serious”.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo said that such concerns should have been conveyed a decade ago when the case went through the courts.

A former lawyer of the prisoners, Muhammad Rifan, told Australia’s Fairfax Media on Monday that Indonesian judges had requested more than $100,000 in return for prison terms of less than 20 years.

But Rifan said the judges later told him they had been ordered by senior legal and government members in Jakarta to impose a death penalty, so the deal fell through.

Among the condemned on Tuesday was Brazilian, Rodrigo Gularte, who had been diagnosed by Indonesian medics with schizophrenia.

Gularte, 42, was arrested in 2004 at a Jakarta airport after trying to enter the country with 6kg of cocaine hidden in a surfboard.

He was also sentenced to death in 2005.

Amnesty International condemned the executions saying they showed a “complete disregard for due process and human rights safeguards.”

“Some of the prisoners were reportedly not provided access to competent lawyers or interpreters during their arrest and initial trial, in violation of their right to a fair trial which is recognized under international and national law,” Rupert Abbott, Amnesty’s Research Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific said.

“Gularte, had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and international law clearly prohibits the use of the death penalty against those with mental disabilities,” Abbott added.

Fourteen people have now been put to death in Indonesia this year, and the government has announced plans for further executions this year.

Indonesia set to execute drug smugglers

by

Executions of nine drug convicts loom as Indonesia dismisses plea by Australia to investigate judicial corruption.

Indonesia

by Al Jazeera

Indonesia appears likely to press ahead with the executions of nine drug criminals on Tuesday, despite last-ditch appeals by Australia’s foreign minister for a stay of execution so that claims of corruption during the trials of the two Australian prisoners could be investigated.

The families of the Australian convicts paid an anguished final visit to their loved ones on Tuesday, wailing in grief as ambulances carrying empty white coffins arrived at their prison.

Julie Bishop, Australia’s foreign minister, told news media that she had received a letter from Indonesia on Monday night that offered no indication of a reprieve for Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan.

Earlier on Monday, she had asked for a stay in their executions, saying allegations in the Australian media that their judges had requested money to commute the death sentences were “very serious”.

The two are among nine drug convicts, mostly foreigners, who are due to be executed by a firing squad as soon as Tuesday night.

However, Indonesian President Joko Widodo said that such concerns should have been conveyed a decade ago when the case went through the courts.

A former lawyer of the prisoners, Muhammad Rifan, told Australia’s Fairfax Media on Monday that Indonesian judges had requested more than $100,000 in return for prison terms of less than 20 years.

But Rifan said the judges later told him they had been ordered by senior legal and government members in Jakarta to impose a death penalty, so the deal fell through.

Arrested in Bali

The members of the Bali Nine were arrested at the main airport on the holiday island of Bali in April 2005 for trying to smuggle 8.3kg of heroin to Australia.

The Indonesian authorities had been tipped off by Australia’s Federal Police.

The seven other members of the Bali Nine, all Australians, have been jailed in Indonesia but do not face the death penalty.

Armanatha Nasir, a spokesman for Indonesia’s foreign ministry, said Sukumaran and Chan had been given all the legal avenues to challenge their death sentences.

The country’s attorney-general’s office said the executions of all nine people on death row would proceed this week.

“I think it will happen this week as the preparations are 100 percent ready now,” spokesman Tony Spontana said.

The prisoners were handed 72 hours’ notice of their executions on Saturday, when representatives of their countries were also advised. Indonesia usually carries out executions at midnight.

The other seven who were informed at the weekend that they would face the firing squad are four Nigerians, an Indonesian, a Brazilian and a Filipina.

Spontana said a tenth prisoner, the Frenchman Sergei Atlaoui, would be spared for now as legal proceedings were still under way.

Among the condemned is a Brazilian man, Rodrigo Gularte, who has been diagnosed by Indonesian medics with schizophrenia, a mental illness.

Gularte, 42, was arrested in 2004 at a Jakarta airport after trying to enter the country with 6kg of cocaine hidden in a surfboard.

He was also sentenced to death in 2005.

Prison wedding

In Hong Kong, Filipino migrants ralied on behalf of Mary Jane Velose – a 30-year-old Filipina mother of two whose supporters say she was tricked into carrying a suitcase loaded with heroin.

Meanwhile, one of the Australians on death row, Andrew Chan, got married in the prison on Monday, his brother Michael Chan said after attending the wedding.

The marriage was Chan’s “final wish” granted by Indonesian prison authorities.

“Yes there was a celebration inside the prison this afternoon with close family and friends; it’s obviously a special occasion for them,” Michael said.

“Yes, look, it’s tough time but it’s happy time at the same time. We just hope that the president somewhere will find some compassion and mercy for these two, young couple so they can carry on with their lives.”

Indonesia executed six prisoners; from Brazil, Malawi, Nigeria, Vietnam, the Netherlands, and an Indonesian national, in January.

Tail of crashed AirAsia flight found

by

Search teams locate the tail of crashed flight QZ8501, marking a major step in locating the plane’s black boxes.

AirAsia's logo, an upside down "A", was seen on a piece of metal at the site in the Java sea [AP]

AirAsia’s logo, an upside down “A”, was seen on a piece of metal at the site in the Java sea [AP]

by Al Jazeera

The tail of AirAsia flight QZ8501 has been found, potentially marking a major step towards locating the plane’s black boxes and helping shed light on what caused it to crash into the sea 11 days ago.

Search teams located the tail of the passenger jet in the Java Sea on Wednesday, on which the company’s logo, an upside down “A” could be seen.

“We’ve found the tail that has been our main target today,” the head of the search and rescue agency, Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo, told a news conference in Jakarta.

The tail had been identified using an underwater remote operated vehicle, Soelistyo said, adding that the team “now is still desperately trying to locate the black box”.

Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride, reporting from the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, said improvements on Wednesday in weather and visibility played a key role in locating the crash site.

Locating the tail has been a priority because the cockpit voice and flight data recorders, crucial for investigators trying to establish why the plane crashed, are located in the rear section of the Airbus A320-200.

“If right part of tail section, then the black box should be there… We need to find all parts soon so we can find all our guests to ease the pain of our families. That still is our priority,” AirAsia boss Tony Fernandes wrote on Twitter after the announcement.

Dark and shallow waters at the site have made it difficult for divers to retrieve the wreckage age, Erik van Sebille, an oceanographer at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, told the Associated Press news agency.

Despite a huge recovery operation assisted by several countries, progress has been hampered by strong winds and high waves.

So far only 40 bodies have been found, all of them floating on the sea.

The flight went down December 28, halfway through a two-hour flight between Indonesia’s second-largest city of Indonesia and Singapore, killing all 162 people on board.

It is not clear what caused the crash, but bad weather is believed to be a contributing factor.

The search team is trying to locate the black box [AP]

AirAsia flight QZ8501: how cloud computing could help prevent air disasters

by

AirAsia flight QZ8501 is the third flight from a Malaysian carrier to be lost in 2014. EPA/Barbara Walton

AirAsia flight QZ8501 is the third flight from a Malaysian carrier to be lost in 2014. EPA/Barbara Walton

by Yijun Yu, The Conversation

While the full picture has yet to emerge, it appears that the reason for the loss of Air Asia flight QZ8501 is different from the losses of MH370 and MH17 earlier this year. MH17 was clearly a man-made disaster, QZ8501 appears to be weather-related. MH370 remains a mystery.

Even though cloud-computing could help advance the status of the black box in terms of the investigation after such incidents, as we are only too aware, nature – in the form of bad weather – often plays a significant role in airline disasters. Is there anything we can do, on the ground, to lower the risk of these weather-related incidents?

Recently, Microsoft Research illustrated that combining real-time data from nearby flights, it is possible to predict the wind speed to an accuracy ten times better than the weather simulations by supercomputers. Augmenting the data collected from real-time sensors from the cloud, one can create a better simulation, thanks to the advances in the internet of flying things.

The internet of flying things refers to the technology which is ready for adoption by agencies on the ground who want to get a bird’s-eye view of weather conditions. The basic technology is already available for less than £500: equipping a drone or unmanned airborne vehicle (UAV) with a GoPro quality camera, enthusiastic fans can already survey the neighbourhood from the air.

If we look at the air crash incidents caused by bad weather conditions, can the killer technology of cloud computing and augmented reality be used as a life saver?

Is it cyclical reasoning to want to use this sort of cloud computing technology to tell us something that the pilots of a stricken aircraft can already tell from the flight deck? After all, when you fly into such wind speeds, is it not difficult to change one’s actions accordingly? Isn’t the flight simply doomed? Not necessarily. In this case, had nearby flying objects logged the abnormal wind speeds earlier they would have been able to notify air traffic control in time to issue a warning to flight QZ8501. In these situations, often timely interventions can save lives.

Internet of flying objects

But before this idea can practically be realised, there are at least three obstacles to overcome if we want to harness the power of the internet of flying objects.

The first thing to note is that these flying objects shouldn’t be limited to aircraft – we could be talking about weather balloons, drones – anything in the air, in short, but these objects need to be identifiable. Only though identification can messages from these flying objects be recognised and trusted by authorities such as FAA. So, for example, the drones which – it is imagined – will be carrying goods to households (not to mention the many thousands of privately owned drones which have been so popular as presents this Christmas) must be regulated and their call signs logged by the authorities before they can be of any practical help. At present they are not. In other words, the autonomous flying objects are required to collaborate with air traffic controllers if we want to build a picture that will deliver a secure and trustworthy solution.

In addition, these regulated and registered flying objects need to be effectively networked, so that – through the exchange of real-time data – the crowd-sourced information delivers as accurate a picture as possible. Resolving any conflicts arising from information coming in from multiple sources requires a good computational model that can assign appropriate weight to the various sources of information.

And this aggregated data needs to depict a physical truth to decision makers – whether they are in front of the desk in the air traffic control centre, on the flight deck of a nearby aircraft or in command of the rescue team. The task of verifying available evidence against any possible internal flaws or external tampering would require that network security levels are brought to another level.

These three requirements are basic, but if they can be overcome, they might offer us a better opportunity to use today’s technology to provide safer air transport in the future.

Yijun Yu is a Senior Lecturer, Department of Computing and Communications at The Open University.

The Conversation

Missing AirAsia Indonesia flight QZ8501 likely 'at bottom of sea'

by

As ships and planes search Indonesian waters, official says jet carrying 162 people is presumed crashed at sea.

Relatives of the passengers of AirAsia flight QZ8501 comfort each other at Juanda International Airport.

Relatives of the passengers of AirAsia flight QZ8501 comfort each other at Juanda International Airport.

by Al Jazeera

The AirAsia plane that went missing with 162 people on board after takeoff from Indonesia is likely at the bottom of the sea, Indonesia’s National Search and Rescue Agency chief said as aircraft and ships were dispatched to search for the jet.

“Based on the coordinates given to us and evaluation that the estimated crash position is in the sea, the hypothesis is the plane is at the bottom of the sea,” Bambang Soelistyo told reporters on Monday.

“That’s the preliminary suspicion and it can develop based on the evaluation of the result of our search.”

First Admiral Sigit Setiayana, the Naval Aviation Center Commander at the Surabaya air force base, said that 12 navy ships, five planes, three helicopters and a number of warships were searching an area of east and southeast of Indonesia’s Belitung island and nearby waters.

Malaysia, Singapore and Australia have joined the operation.

The Airbus A320-200 went missing after air traffic controllers lost contact with the aircraft about 45 minutes after it left Juanda international airport at Surabaya in East Java at 5:20am on Sunday (22:20 GMT Saturday).

Shortly before disappearing, AirAsia said pilots of the plane had asked permission from Jakarta air traffic control to change course and climb above bad weather in an area noted for severe thunderstorms.

Investigation ongoing

Al Jazeera’s Scott Heidler, reporting from Surabaya, said investigators were checking all passenger profiles and footage of X-rays of the luggage taken on board, as well as looking into the maintenance of the plane.

“There are also reports that some fishermen might have heard something before the news that the plane had disappeared off radar came out,” he said.

The airline said 155 of those on board Flight QZ8501 were Indonesians, with three South Koreans and one person each from Singapore, Malaysia, Britain and France.

Steven Wallace, a former accident investigator for the US Federal Aviation Authority, told Al Jazeera he was confident that the plane would be found..

“Typically airplanes break up and light interior components, sometimes even pieces like the tail, float to the surface,” he told Al Jazeera.

“And if the recorder is under water, it will emit a ping. For at least 30 our up to 90 days it will send out a signal to help investigators locate the wreckage.”

The aircraft was operated by AirAsia Indonesia, a unit of Malaysian-based AirAsia which dominates Southeast Asia’s booming low-cost airline market.

Disastrous year for Malaysian aviation

AirAsia said the missing jet last underwent maintenance on November 16. The company has never suffered a fatal accident.

An official from Indonesia’s Transport Ministry said the pilot asked to ascend by 6,000 feet to 38,000 feet to avoid heavy clouds.

“The plane is in good condition but the weather is not so good,” Djoko Murjatmodjo told a press conference at Jakarta’s airport, addressing reports of severe storms in the area where the jet went missing.

Climbing to dodge large rain clouds is a standard procedure for aircraft in these conditions.

The plane’s disappearance comes at the end of a disastrous year for Malaysian aviation.

Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, carrying 239 people, vanished in March after inexplicably diverting from its Kuala Lumpur-Beijing course. No trace of it has been found.

Another Malaysia Airlines plane went down in July in rebellion-torn eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 aboard. It was believed to have been hit by a surface-to-air missile.

KNOW US

GET INVOLVED

PROMOTE

Archives