Indonesia demands answers after top general denied entry to US

Indonesia intends to send a diplomatic note to the US secretary of state and summon Washington’s deputy ambassador in Jakarta to explain why the head of its military was denied entry to the United States, Indonesian officials said on Sunday.

Armed Forces Commander General Gatot Nurmantyo was about to board a flight on Saturday when the airline told him that the US Customs and Border Protection had denied him entry, military spokesman Wuryanto told a news conference in Jakarta.

Nurmantyo was going to the US at the invitation of General Joseph Dunford Jnr, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, to attend a Chiefs of Defence Conference on Countering Violent Extremism in Washington this week, Wuryanto said.

It was not clear why he was stopped from entering the US, Wuryanto said, adding that the general did not have any problem during his visit to the US in February 2016.

“We’ve asked for clarification to the US, to the Department of State as well as the embassy in Jakarta and until now we’re still waiting for that clarification,” Indonesia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Retno Marsudi said.

The ministry’s spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir earlier said Indonesia’s embassy in Washington was to send a diplomatic note to the US secretary of state demanding an explanation for the incident.