17 September 1945, PMI is founded by committee with 5 member which is: dr R. Mochtar (Leader), dr. Bahder Djohan (Writer), dan dr Djuhana; dr Marzuki; dr. Sitanala (member). PMI doing pioneering work with giving help to victim of war from revolution Indonesia and returning captive war from sekutu or jepang. Because those hard work, in 1950 PMI had acknowledgment from International and authorized by Keppres No.25 tahun 1959 then become more legitimate by Keppres No.246 tahun 1963. Now PMI is available in 30 Province and have 323 branch with 165 operational blood transfusion unit in Indonesia.
PMI job is to helping government in humanity, especially work that mentioned in Jenewa Convention 1949, which is ratification by Indonesian government in 1958 with UU No 59. When doing the job PMI must follow 7 principal : humanity, voluntary, neutrality, equality, independent, unity, and universal.
source : http://www.palangmerah.org/