Nearly two dozen Indonesians repatriated from Iran arrived home, recalling the shock from falling bombs in the Islamic republic as the Middle East descended into tense conflict.
The group of 22 people, who returned on Tuesday, is the first brought back to Indonesia by the government, having been evacuated over land from Iran to Azerbaijan before flying to Jakarta.
Zulfanlindan, who was stuck in sheltering at the Indonesian embassy in Teheran for 10 days, said the situation was dire.
“Ten bombs flew over the embassy, and they exploded just one or two kilometres away, so powerful that the windows in the embassy shook,” recounted the 69-year-old.
Thousands of Iranians had been taking to the streets every night to condemn and mourn the killing of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes, he said.
Zulfanlindan said the group waited five hours for immigration clearance in Teheran before making a nine-hour trip by road to the Azerbaijani border.
In the Azerbaijani capital Baku, “it only took one hour before we headed straight into the city and checked into the hotel,” he said.
Attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran, and Teheran’s retaliatory strikes in Middle East, have caused flight cancellations and airspace closures that have stranded many foreigners.
They include 329 Indonesians in Iran, most of them students in the central city of Qom.
“This afternoon, we are welcoming our brothers and sisters back,” Foreign Minister Sugiono said at the airport.
He said 10 more Indonesians were set to arrive yesterday, and another 36 have registered to be repatriated in a later wave. — AFP
