SAFETY MEASURES TAKEN BEFORE AID MISSION TO SOMALIA - MALAYSIAN FOREIGN MINISTER

PETALING JAYA (Malaysia), Sept 5 (Bernama) -- Ministry of Foreign Affairs
(Wisma Putra) had sent a team of officials to look into safety measures in
Somalia before the Kelab Putera 1Malaysia humanitarian aid mission went there,
said Foreign Minister Anifah Aman.

He said Malaysian Ambassador to Libya, Zulkifli Yaacob, had also gone to
Somalia and made the necessary arrangements for the mission.

"We needed to be very certain that the country we were going to, provided
ample and satisfactory protection, which they did, but this is one of those
unexpected things," he told reporters after joining the family of slain
BernamaTV cameraman Noramfaizul Mohd Nor for the arrival of the journalist's
remains from Mogadishu at the Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) base in Subang
near here Sunday.

Noramfaizul, 39, was killed on Friday after he was hit by a stray bullet
while travelling in a four-wheel-drive vehicle with other Malaysian media
personnel covering the humanitarian aid mission to Somalia.

Anifah said Wisma Putra normally assisted local humanitarian aid missions in
conducting ground and safety assessements of the country which they headed to.

Although it was not compulsory for Malaysian missions abroad to submit
reports to the ministry, they however, would normally submit detailed
assessments to the ministry, he said.

"After obtaining the information, we will help in getting assistance from
the host country of the mission. We will assist them in the best way we can," he
said.

Anifah said however, the decision to proceed with any mission depended on
the organisers as they were well aware of the high risks involved.

In a warring zone, anything could happen, no matter how much protection
one took, he added.

Anifah also hoped the Somali Government, which had promised to come up
with a thorough investigation into the fatal incident, would furnish him the
report as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, RMAF operations chief Lieutenant-Colonel Zahani Zainal Abidin,
who piloted the C-103 to fly the humanitarian mission team back to Malaysia,
said due to the unstable situation in Somalia, there was a need to expedite the
process of sending and flying back members of the mission.

He said, bringing back the team and Noramfaizul's remains took just 30
minutes as the aircraft engines were not shut off to enable quick departure.

"Within 30 minutes, we were able to load a temporary coffin containing the
remains inside the aircraft, in the flight to the Seychelles," he told
reporters.

Zahani said that earlier, they were in the Seychelles when they were
informed about Noramfaizul's death. They quickly made preparations to bring home
his remains by renting a temporary coffin to be taken to Mogadishu.

In Seychelles, Noramfaizul's body was put in another coffin for the trip
home, he added.

Zahani said the RMAF flight operation team comprised two sets of flight
crew, a set of maintenance crew and security team, totalling 25 personnel.

Based on the fact that they were flying and landing in a conflict zone, he
said they could not take a similar risk as in other disaster areas which they
had visited.

The preliminary planning they had made, based on intelligence information,
was to deliver the mission's team members in Mogadishu, and then retreat to a
safer location.

"And, in this mission, we stayed in Seychelles because maintenance support
was available.

"We minimised our time on land in Mogadishu. When we landed, we just opened
the ramp door and off-loaded everyone," said Zahani, adding that they would not
enter Somalian air space at night because of navigational problems.

On the atmosphere in the aircraft, he said: "They were quite cheerful when
they flew out. The mood was a bit low, coming back, as we had Noramfaizul's
remains on board.

"Nevertheless, morale was still high."

-- BERNAMA