CHITTAGONG, KOMPAS – The second batch of aid from Indonesia for victims of the Rakhine conflict in Myanmar has arrived in Chittagong, Bangladesh, on Friday (15/9) evening. The aid, which was shipped by an Indonesian Air Force C-130 Hercules plane, was in the form of foldable water tanks, sanitation equipment and blankets. The aid will be followed by more aid in the form of rice, which will be carried by a fourth plane at 07:00 p.m., after the first two planes had arrived in Chittagong the previous day.
Interviewed a day before the arrival of the aid, Indonesian Ambassador to Bangladesh Rina P Soemarno told Kompas reporter B Josie Susilo Hardianto in Chittagong that an assessment team would head to a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar to review the items needed by the refugees. In the last few days, Rina said, the Bangladeshi government and supporting institutions needed generators and large lamps in the refugee camps.
Furthermore, the need for a mobile clinic and clinic tents will also be reviewed. “All of the aid will be granted. So, the things we give will be left here, including if we send a mobile clinic, generator and tents. We will donate all of it to the local government or international organizations that will later use it,” Rina said.
To make the most of the aid shipment operation, the team will carry out a detailed review. The needs like fuel or food that can be obtained in Bangladesh will be bought in the country. However, goods that cannot be gotten from Bangladesh will be sent from Indonesia.
“Also, we need to assess in a detailed manner whether the needed items can be used well and correctly by those that will be operating them later,” Rina said.
The aid will be distributed in cooperation with the local government and international organizations. The UN World Food Program (WPF) will provide aid in the form of food, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will provide medicine and other medical items, while the International Organization for Migration (IOM) will provide tents and family needs.
According to Rina, the Bangladesh government is open and has given the opportunity for Indonesia to monitor the distribution of aid. Other than the aid from Indonesia, the Bangladeshi government on Friday afternoon received aid from Iran, which was shipped by a Boeing 747 freight plane.
391,000 refugees
Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday said the Bangladeshi army would be deployed to distribute the aid sent by donor countries. The number of Rohingyan refugees from Rakhine in Cox’s Bazaar has reached 391,000 people.
The shipment of aid for the refugees that arrived in the last three weeks was delayed, because the local aid workers were busy taking care of the large number of arriving refugees.
“We received the instruction that the army will receive the aid sent by foreign countries to the airport and transport it to Cox’s Bazar,” said Lt. Col. Rashidul Hasan, a local military leader.
It is not yet clear how quickly the refugees will receive the aid. Many of the refugees are seen curled up at the sides of roads without tents. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Agency for Children (Unicef) say that they will launch a vaccination campaign on Saturday to prevent the 150,000 or so child refugees from becoming infected with measles, rubella or polio.