Established 1961 7 International Tuesday, October 24, 2017 Despite apology, Indonesia asks why US blocked its military chief Anger simmers in Indonesia over incident

JAKARTA: Indonesia yesterday said it had made There is no restriction on General Gatot’s travel and “urgent” requests for an explanation why the United we look forward to welcoming (him) to the United States barred its military chief from travelling to the States.” However, it was not immediately clear whether US, as anger simmered in the world’s largest Muslim- Nurmantyo, who has made official visits to the US majority country over the diplomatic incident. Armed before, would attend the conference as scheduled. forces commander General Gatot Nurmantyo was Some Indonesians reacted indignantly to the inci- stopped on Saturday from boarding an Emirates flight dent, putting up banners around the capital calling for to the US, despite having a visa and an official invita- the US ambassador to be expelled and for Americans tion to a conference from his counterpart, the chair- to be “sent home”. Former Indonesian ambassador to man of the US joint chiefs of staff, General Joseph F the United States Dino Patti Djalal called for a Dunford Jr Foreign minister Retno Marsudi said she stronger government reaction. “The government had accepted an official apology from the deputy US should not be asking for a clarification, but rather ambassador in Jakarta, but still awaited a detailed conveying a to the US side,” he said on social explanation. network . Indonesia generally enjoys good ties “We conveyed that we still await clarification, an with the United States. But relations have sometimes explanation why this hap- been strained over American pened,” Indonesian Foreign resource companies operat- Minister Retno Marsudi ing in Indonesia or alleged told reporters after meet- rights abuses involving ing the US envoy. “There is Indonesia’s military. a sense of urgency to this Nurmantyo has fre- that we have conveyed to Foreign minister quently courted controver- them,” she said, adding that sy in Indonesia over what US officials were “trying to awaits detailed analysts perceive to be his coordinate with relevant explanation political ambitions. He has authorities in the US to been accused of whipping find out what really hap- up nationalist sentiment by pened.” US Defense promoting the notion that Secretary Jim Mattis apol- Indonesia is besieged by ogized for the incident to his Indonesian counterpart “proxy wars” waged by foreign states looking to Ryamizard Ryacudu on the sidelines of an ASEAN undermine the country. This month, Indonesian meeting in the Philippines, and the two were pho- President Joko Widodo said the armed forces should tographed shaking hands. stay out of politics and ensure their loyalty was only “I can confirm that he did a pull-aside with the to the state and the government - a statement many Indonesian minister and expressed regret and apolo- believed referred to Nurmantyo’s actions. gized for the inconvenience,” Captain Jeff Davis, a Nurmantyo is due to retire next March and many spokesman for Mattis said. In a statement, the US expect him to run for vice president or even presi- JAKARTA: Indonesia’s Military Chief General Gatot Nurmantyo (left) shakes hands with Indonesia’s embassy in Jakarta said, “This issue has been resolved. dent in 2019. —Reuters President Joko Widodo after the swearing-in ceremony at the presidential palace in this file photo. —AFP

Tillerson in surprise News in brief visit to Afghanistan Prominent journalist stabbed MOSCOW: A well-known journalist for ’s lead- ing news radio station was stabbed in the throat yes- KABUL: US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson paid a terday by an unknown attacker who burst into her surprise visit to Afghanistan yesterday to discuss studio - the latest in a string of attacks on journalists Washington’s new strategy with President Ashraf or opposition activists in Moscow. The assailant broke Ghani. Tillerson reiterated the US commitment to into Ekho Moskvy, which has often been described as working with the Kabul government and regional part- Russia’s only independent news radio station, and ners “to achieve peace in Afghanistan and deny safe stabbed deputy editor-in-chief Tatyana Felgenhauer, havens to terrorists who threaten that goal”, said a US editor-in-chief Alexei Venediktov said. Felgenhauer, embassy statement posted on Twitter. The meeting best known for co-hosting a popular morning radio took place at Bagram Airfield, America’s largest base in show, was taken to hospital but her life is not in dan- Afghanistan, as the resurgent Taleban step up attacks ger, the station said. Venediktov said the man was on Afghan police and troops in response to the US detained and handed over to police. To get into the strategy announced in August. building, the man sprayed gas in the face of a security “Clearly we have to continue to fight against the guard at the entrance on the ground floor then went Taleban, against others, in order for them to understand up to the 14th floor, where the station’s studios are. they will never win a military victory,” Tillerson told reporters after the meeting that was also attended by Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah. It was Tillerson’s first trip to Afghanistan as secretary of state Bahrain frees activist and comes several weeks after US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis also paid an unannounced visit. DUBAI: Bahrain has temporarily freed a female The closed-door talks covered Ghani’s reform pro- KABUL: Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (left) speaks with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani before their activist who has accused her government of torture in gram, his anti-corruption strategy and preparations for meeting yesterday at Bagram Air Field. —AP detention, rights groups said yesterday. Ebtisam Al- parliamentary elections due to take place next year. US Saegh was released late Sunday pending her trial on President “has declared that we are here “terrorism” charges, Amnesty International and the to stay until we can secure a process of reconciliation pant since the withdrawal of NATO combat forces at Tillerson is due to fly to Pakistan yesterday where he will Bahrain Institute for Human Rights (BIRD) said. Two and peace”, Tillerson said, adding: “It’s not an unlimited the end of 2014. Trump has cleared the way for the pressure Islamabad to take action on the support other activists, Radhi Al-Qatari and Mohammed Al- commitment.” Tillerson’s unannounced visit follows one deployment of thousands more US troops in an open- Taleban and other “terrorist organizations” receive in the Shakhoori, were also released until their trials on simi- of the bloodiest weeks in Afghanistan in recent memory, ended commitment and there has been a surge in US country. Islamabad needed to “take a clear-eyed view of lar charges, BIRD said. London-based Amnesty with more than 200 people killed in multiple attacks on airstrikes, but the insurgency has only intensified. the situation that they are confronted with in terms of the International confirmed the charges against Saegh had security installations and mosques across the country. Militants fired several rockets into Kabul yesterday number of terrorist organizations that find safe haven not been dropped. Bahrain’s justice ministry did not A spokesman for the militants told AFP last week the morning but there were no casualties. inside” the country, he told reporters, according to a respond to a request for comment. Saegh was attacks were “a clear message... the enemy who thought During Mattis’s visit last month Taleban militants fired pool report. “We want to work closely (with) Pakistan to detained in July after retweeting a series of posts criti- they had scared us with the new Trump strategy have multiple rockets towards the city’s international airport in create a more stable and secure Pakistan as well,” cal of Bahrain’s king and its security agency and now been given a lesson”. The Taleban have been ram- an attack that killed one person and wounded 11 others. Tillerson said. —AFP charged later the same month with “terrorism”.

letting people know where you are going before meeting Gay dating apps someone, checking if you have mutual friends and trying to Teenager’s axe rampage meet virtually first through video so you know who you’re meeting. While homosexuality is not outlawed in Egypt, dis- GENEVA: A teenager armed with an axe injured sev- provide tips to crimination is rife. Gay men are frequently arrested and typ- eral people in a rampage in Switzerland on Sunday Beijing garment ically charged with debauchery, immorality or blasphemy. before being shot and arrested, police said, describing stop entrapment Egyptian authorities do not deny going after the LGBT the incident as unrelated to terrorism. Police in the industry resists community. Police, state-aligned media, and the religious canton of St Gallen said the 17-year-old Latvian establishment see it as a public duty to combat the spread national carried out the attack at the post office in the BEIRUT: Amid an anti-gay crackdown in Egypt since a of homosexuality. “Significant percentages of gay men in northeast town of Flums. Several people were wound- Congress lockdown rainbow flag was hoisted at a Cairo concert, gay dating the Middle East find online as a safer way to connect,” ed in the initial attack before the assailant “escaped apps are sending users tips on how to protect themselves Sean Howell, president of Hornet, told the Thomson Reuters with a stolen car”, police spokesman Krusi Hanspeter Foundation from New York. Hornet’s additional safety BEIJING: As China’s Communist Party congress got from entrapment. The flag was raised last month at a con- said in a statement. The attacker later injured another information is not meant to “create fear”, he said. “We are under way, nervous garment factory owners were on cert headlined by Mashrou’ Leila, a Lebanese rock band person at a gas station where he was shot by police being cautious. We have not received many reports from high alert, running lookouts to evade inspectors as whose singer is openly gay. It was a rare public show of and apprehended, Hanspeter said. “At this stage, there users that make us think they continued to produce coats, jackets and button- support for lesbian, gay, is no evidence of a link to terrorism”, he added, noting that the security online down shirts in defiance of official orders to close. bisexual and transgender that police were continuing to gather information is worse than before,” Chinese authorities have taken extraordinary measures (LGBT) rights in the conser- about the assailant. Police said the severity of the said Howell. to prevent any disturbance-including pollution-from vative Muslim country, and injuries suffered by the victims was not immediately The dating apps have marring the week-long, twice-a-decade meeting as was met with a swift zero-tol- clear. According to the Blick news site, police later sent these kinds of businesses ranging from bars to factories were shut erance response. raided a house in the area as part of the investigation. Anti-gay warnings before in vari- down. Apparel producers were ordered to suspend Since then nearly 70 peo- ous countries, such as work for the month out of fire safety concerns, but in ple have been arrested, and crackdown Russia where a law Dahongmen, one of Beijing’s last clothing manufactur- more than 20 have been against the promotion of Three Palestinians missing ing hubs, some factory owners simply took their work handed sentences ranging in Egypt homosexuality has been underground. from six months to six years, GAZA: Three Palestinians went missing from a tunnel used to stop gay pride “I can’t possibly stop for a month, so I can only according to Dalia Abdel between Egypt and the Gaza Strip in mysterious cir- marches and detain gay choose to secretly keep on working,” factory owner Yue Hameed of the rights group cumstances yesterday, authorities in the Islamist rights activists. “We Fang told AFP as half a dozen tailors churned out cot- Egyptian Initiative for Hamas-run territory said. “Three Palestinian workers always send out mes- ton-padded coats. Yue is one of some 200 small factory Personal Rights (EIPR). US- disappeared inside one of the tunnels on the sages like this to users who are in places where there is owners based in Dahongmen, some 25 kilometers from based gay dating apps, like Grindr and Hornet, used by mil- Palestinian-Egyptian border and the security forces an elevated level of risk”, said Harrison-Quintana at the Great Hall of the People, where the party’s top lead- lions globally, have provided Egyptian users with extra are investigating to locate their whereabouts,” the Grindr. EIPR and Amnesty International said most of the ers are meeting to hand general secretary Xi Jinping a safety tips in Arabic. interior ministry in Gaza City said in a statement. A arrests were unrelated to the concert - some people were second term when the congress ends today. Each facto- “It will make people take more precautions ... we know number of Gazans have died in tunnel collapses in arrested in public spaces and others were “entrapped” via ry had staff keeping an eye out for inspectors weeks that the police are under pressure to arrest people and they recent months, but there were no reports of any such dating apps. “The government is taking the flag incident before the meeting kicked off, Yue recalled. —AFP are going about doing that through all the avenues that they incident yesterday. have,” Jack Harrison-Quintana, a director at Grindr, said by as an excuse to issue a larger crackdown on the commu- phone from the United States. Some of Grindr’s tips include nity,” said Abdel Hameed. —Reuters