George Floyd's Demo Heats Up, Ministry Of Foreign Affairs Asks Indonesian Citizens In America To Stay At Home

JAKARTA - The Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Kemlu) has asked all Indonesian citizens living in the United States to stay at home and follow the recommendations of local authorities. This request was submitted after the protests of the killing of George Floyd which ended in chaos.

The Director of Protection for Indonesian Citizens and Indonesian Legal Entities at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Judha Nugraha, said that this appeal had also been conveyed by representatives of the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in America.

"All of our representatives request that all our citizens in the United States remain calm, do not leave the house, follow directions from local authorities, and always monitor communications with all our representatives in the US," Judha said in a press conference which was held regularly. online, Wednesday, June 3.

The Foreign Ministry ensured that Indonesian citizens in the country were safe, even though a number of riots occurred as a result of the protests over the death of a black American man, George Floyd.

"Based on the latest information from Indonesian representatives in the US, there are no Indonesian citizens affected by the demonstration process in more than 140 cities in the US," he said.

Judha then explained that based on the latest data from six Indonesian representatives throughout America, namely the Indonesian Embassy in Washington DC, the Indonesian Consulate General in San Francisco, the Indonesian Consulate General in Los Angeles, the KJRI in Chicago, the Indonesian Consulate for New York, and the Consulate General in Houston, there were 142,141 Indonesian citizens living there.

"Once again, this is the data of our citizens who were recorded and reported themselves to our representatives," he said.

To monitor the condition of Indonesian citizens in America, continued Judha, all Indonesian representatives had expanded their communication.

Through the press conference, Judha also commented on the circulation of a photo of a demonstrator who damaged property in a rioting protest in the United States. In the photo, you can see a man whose arm has a tattoo of a map of Indonesia.

He emphasized that the man was not an Indonesian even though he had a map of Indonesia tattooed on his arm. "We can say that based on the information we have gathered at this time, the person concerned is a US citizen," he said.

Some time ago, a photo of a man tattooed with a map of Indonesia breaking glass in a property was widely discussed. The photo even made headlines for The Inquirer, which is an international media.

Later, the man was named Rainey A Backues. After realizing that his photo was busy being discussed, Rainey then spoke up via his social media account @rainsfordthegreat.

In his upload, Rainey admitted that he regretted his anger by destroying property. He realized his mistake and apologized to the public in America.

"Therefore, I would now like to apologize to the BLM (Black Lives Matter) movement and also to the demonstrators who clearly demonstrated their opposition to the injustices we are seeing today," Rainey wrote.

He also talked about the tattoo with a map of Indonesia on his arm. Rainey admitted that he was born on the island of Java and is a naturalized American. "I apologize to the Indonesian people in Philadelphia," he concluded.