Indonesians search charred homes as depot fire kills 17

RESIDENTS searched through the remains of their charred homes Saturday after a fuel storage depot fire in Jakarta left at least 17 people dead, including two children.

After Friday night’s blaze at state energy firm Pertamina’s Plumpang depot in north Jakarta, Indonesian officials called for an audit of “all fuel facilities and infrastructures” in the country.

Fifty people were injured, with many left with severe burns, and hundreds more living in residential areas near the depot had to be evacuated, the Jakarta fire and rescue department said.

“It started with a very strong smell. It was so strong that we could hardly breathe,” witness Swastono Aji told AFP.

“Then we were leaving this area when we suddenly heard a very loud explosion.”

Top officials including the minister responsible for state-owned firms like Pertamina called for a probe into the fire’s cause and an audit of the country’s energy facilities after several fires in recent years.

“After we had multiple fires... it is clear that we must audit all fuel facilities and infrastructures, especially tanks and refineries,” Sugeng Suparwoto, head of the parliament’s energy commission, told local broadcaster Metro TV on Saturday.

In 2021, a massive blaze broke out at the Balongan refinery in West Java, also owned by state oil company Pertamina and one of Indonesia’s biggest oil refineries.

That same depot had seen a fire break out in 2009 and in 2014 – when it spread to 40 houses around it. No casualties were reported in either of those cases. AFP

HK Tiananmen vigil organizers convicted

THREE former organizers of Hong Kong’s annual vigil to commemorate Beijing’s deadly Tiananmen crackdown were found guilty on Saturday for refusing to submit information to national security police.

The candlelight vigil was banned by authorities in 2020, weeks before Beijing imposed a sweeping national security law to stamp out political dissent in Hong Kong following large-scale and sometimes violent pro-democracy protests a year earlier.

The three defendents were found guilty of failing to comply with a request for information issued by authorities in 2021, which can lead to six months in jail and a maximum fine of HK$100,000 (US$12,745) under the security law.

“For prevention and investigation, information is the core... any obstruction would defeat the whole process,” read the verdict by magistrate Peter Law, who is among a pool of judges handpicked by the city government to try national security cases. The court is set to sentence Chow Hang-tung, Tang Ngok-kwan and Tsui Hon-kwong on March 11.

The Hong Kong Alliance – of which the three were a part – had organized an annual candlelight vigil for over three decades to mourn victims of China’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989.

The Alliance was forced to disband in September 2021 after all seven members of its standing committee were charged in cases under the security law.

Five members, including vice chairwoman Chow, were prosecuted for refusing to provide information requested by the police. AFP

Inbrief

US ignores Russia warning on arms as Biden meets Scholz

THE United States responded Friday to a Russian warning against arming Ukraine by offering a further $400 million in security assistance, as President Joe Biden hosted German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a show of unity against Moscow.

The head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group meanwhile said its forces had “practically encircled” the eastern Ukraine city of Bakhmut, which has seen the fiercest fighting of Moscow’s invasion.

Western military aid for Ukraine has been key to Kyiv’s ability to hold out against Moscow’s military onslaught and to even regain ground, but the Kremlin said such assistance will only “prolong the conflict and have sad consequences for the Ukrainian people.” AFP

Japan’s PM hit for linking loans to having babies

JAPANESE Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has come under fire for his party’s proposal to reduce student debt for those who have children, as the country struggles to raise its low birthrate.

Kishida has pledged “unprecedented” measures to tackle the country’s perennially low birthrate, and his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) is reportedly drafting a set of policy recommendations on the issue for the government.

But the reported debt forgiveness plan has sparked anger.

“Scholarship debt reduction and whether an individual would have a baby or not are completely different issues, aren’t they?” opposition lawmaker Noriko Ishigaki asked Kishida at an upper house session Friday. AFP