JAKARTA
(Reuters) - Indonesia’s military chief was temporarily barred from traveling to
the United States at the weekend due to an “administrative error”, the U.S.
embassy in Jakarta said in an online statement on Wednesday.
General
Gatot Nurmantyo was about to board a flight to the United States on Saturday
when he was told that the Customs and Border Protection Agency had denied him
entry, even though he had a visa and an official invitation from the chairman
of the U.S. joint chiefs of staff to attend a conference in Washington.
“General
Gatot Nurmantyo and his wife were delayed in their ability to board their
flight due to an administrative error. The error was quickly corrected. We have
taken appropriate measures to prevent this matter from occurring again,” the
U.S. embassy said in a statement, without elaborating.
The incident
prompted top U.S. officials, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and envoys
in Jakarta to apologize to Indonesia as it demanded details as to why Nurmantyo
was blocked, where he had been able to travel to the United States on official
trips before.
U.S.
Homeland Security Department said earlier this week that the U.S. embassy in
Jakarta had informed Nurmantyo’s office that he might be delayed in boarding
his flight because of unspecified “U.S. security protocols”.
It added
that the U.S. government was unable to resolve the problem before Nurmantyo
arrived at the airport and he was denied boarding. The general was eventually
cleared and booked on another flight but he chose not to travel.
Nurmantyo
told reporters on Tuesday that he did not travel on a later flight because he
had informed President Joko Widodo of the issue and that he would only travel
“on further orders from the president”.
“There’s no
signal (from the president) so I no longer have the initiative to go,”
Nurmantyo said, adding he was disappointed at not being able to meet his friend
and counterpart General Joseph F. Dunford, who had invited him to attend an
anti-terrorism conference.
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