"The Indonesian Students Association (PPI) calls on (the press) to refer to a single source, the Crisis Center, at the Indonesian embassy in Tokyo for all information on the condition of Indonesian citizens in Japan," The PPI said in its press release made available to Indonesian media here on Sunday.
The PPI-Japan`s chairperson Fithra Faisal Hastiadi said that the catastrophe in Japan, caused by the 9.0-magnitute earthquake, tsunami and the explosion of Fukushima nuclear power plant, only had its direct impacts on the northern prefectures on Honsu island, Miyagi, Iwate, Fukushima and Aomori.
The condition in other places, including Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima, Fukuoka, where the largest groups of Indonesian citizens lived, was generally safe. There had even been no casualties, Hastiadi said.
After having been able to evacuate and return more than 100 Indonesians from Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, to Indonesia, the Indonesian embassy was currently in the process of evacuating more Indonesian from the northern cities of Iwate, Fukushima, Kesennuma.
About the threat of nuclear radiation arising from the nuclear power plant at Fukushima, the Indonesian embassy and some Indonesian nuclear experts in Japan had held a meeting on March 16, 2011.
The meeting had concluded that the threat of nuclear radiation was still within the environs of Fukushima (radius of 0-50kms from the nuclear power plant) so that there had been no serious threats to the cities outside the radius of 50-kms.
Despite the fact, the Indonesian embassy in Tokyo kept on evacuating of Indonesian citizens living within the 0-100km radius of Fukushima to Tokyo, located some 250kms away from the nuclear power plant.
A total of 25,546 Indonesians live in various parts of Japan presently; 274 of them reside in Miyagi and 140 in Iwate.(*)
(T.KR-VFT/R013)
Editor: Ruslan Burhani
Copyright © ANTARA 2011
