Indonesian worker trapped in Gaza to arrive in Jakarta Tuesday

01/27/09 06:17

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - An Indonesian femmale worker, Umi Saodah, who was trapped in the Gaza Strip when Israel attacked Palestine, is scheduled to arrive in Jakarta on Tuesday, January 26, 2009.

The Indonesian Embassy in Cairo said on Monday that Saodah was slated to arrive at Cengkareng Soekarno-Hatta airport here at 1.30 pm.

Saodah who hailed from Central Java, had been evacuated by a team from the Indonesian embassy in Cairo after she was trapped during the Israeli military attacks in the Gaza Strip for more than two weeks.

Saodah had been evacuated by the embassy`s team at 6 pm local time (2 am in Jakarta) on January 22, 2009.

"The team picked up Umi Saodah from the border area in Rafah to Cairo, Egypt, a 2 a.m Indonesian time," Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said last week.

He said Umi Saodah could be evacuated after intensive coordination between the Indonesian embassy in Cairo and various parties in Indonesia, Egypt and Palestine.

A member of the Palestinian Reconciliation Committee, Abu Ja`far, handed over Saodah to Muhammad Abdullah, a counsellor at the Indonesian embassy in Cairo, at the gate of the border area in Rafah, he said.

Faizasyah said the evacuation took place after prolonged coordination between the Indonesian embassy and the Palestine Red-Cross and after a ceasefire was reached the warring parties had made conditions in Gaza more conducive.

After the ceasefire was announced, the Indonesian Ambassador to Egypt ordered the team to depart to Rafah to carry out the evacuation on Tuesday, January 20.

Initially, the embassy`s team intended to enter the Gaza Strip but the Egyptian authorities did not allow it for security reasons so that the Indonesian embassy had to coordinate again with other parties to ascertain Saodah`s position. (*)

Link: http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2009/1/27/indonesian-worker-trapped-in-gaza-to-arrive-in-jakarta-tuesday/