Indonesia seeks to cool spat with Australia over teaching materials
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INDONESIA appeared to back down yesterday from a decision to suspend all military cooperation with Australia in a row over teaching materials.
A senior minister said only language training had been put on hold.
The Indonesian military said on Wednesday that military cooperation with Canberra, including joint exercises and exchange programmes, had been put on ice last month after teaching materials deemed offensive to Jakarta were found at an Australian army base. The row erupted after a visiting Indonesian officer raised concerns about the materials at a language training facility in Perth.
Indonesia’s military chief General Gatot Nurmantyo told reporters it had involved “unethical stuff” that “discredits Indonesia and its military, even the nation’s ideology.”
He said it concerned East Timor — which seceded from Indonesia after a bloody occupation — the Papuan region’s independence movement and the nation’s founding philosophy “Pancasila,” all deeply sensitive topics for the Indonesian military.
But following the military’s announcement, leaders of both Australia and Indonesia publicly insisted ties were strong before Indonesian Security Minister Wiranto announced yesterday he was giving a “clarification” after receiving information from Nurmantyo.
The military “has temporarily suspended cooperation in language training,” said the minister, adding it was due to “a small incident that has offended our dignity as a nation.” But he said Indonesia was not “completely stopping all cooperation,” contradicting the earlier military statement. Indonesian and Australian forces cooperate on a range of issues from border protection to counter-terrorism.
“The suspension is temporary and will be resumed after Australia clearly takes measures to resolve the matter,” he added.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation also broadcast footage yesterday of Nurmantyo giving a lecture in November, voicing fears Canberra was trying to recruit soldiers sent to Australia for training.
“Once I became chief commander of the national forces, it (the students being sent) did not happen again. They will certainly be recruited.”
Australian Defence Minister Marise Payne denied Canberra had targeted Indonesian soldiers to be potential agents.She added that an investigation into the teaching materials that sparked the spat was almost complete.
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