JAKARTA, Indonesia: An Indonesian government minister clarified Thursday that the country was suspending only part of its military cooperation with Australia, as that country promised its investigation of an alleged insult of Indonesian beliefs was nearly complete.
Australian Defense Minister Marise Payne said the issue began in November, after an Indonesian military officer raised concerns about teaching materials and remarks made at an army language-training facility in western Australia.
Indonesia said Wednesday that it has suspended military cooperation with Australia indefinitely, but Security Affairs Minister Wiranto clarified a day later that only the language training was suspended.
“The incident in November offended our dignity as a nation,” Wiranto, who uses one name, told an afternoon news conference at the state palace. “Therefore we suspend language training at the special forces instead of the defense cooperation in a whole. That is very much different.”
The suspension had surprised Australians. Military ties between the nations have been relatively warm in recent years, having improved since Indonesia downgraded its relations with Australia in 2013 over the alleged bugging of phones belonging to Indonesia’s president.
Indonesian military spokesman Maj. Gen. Wuryanto said an Indonesian instructor reportedly felt that a “laminated paper” on display at the facility was insulting. According to Indonesian media, the paper contained words that demeaned Indonesia’s ideology of Pancasila — a set of vague principles that mandates belief in one God and unity among the country’s 250 million people.
Wuryanto refused to comment later about the scale of the suspension but he pointed to comments from Indonesia’s military commander posted on the army’s website that were specific to the language program.
Referring to the content of the laminated paper, Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo said, “It was too painful to be explained.”
Nurmantyo said he “decided to withdraw the instructor and stop the program” after the Indonesian instructor reported about a writing mentioning Pancasila as “Pancagila” (five crazies) along with five mock and offending principles. He did not elaborate.
On Thursday, Payne was asked about reports that the material also suggested West Papua should be given independence from Indonesia, which is battling the remote region’s separatist movement.
“The issue of West Papua was raised by the Indonesian defense minister, yes,” Payne told reporters.
Payne said completion of an investigation begun in November was “imminent” and the training material in question would be replaced. “We have indicated our regret that this occurred and that offense was taken,” she said.
Indonesian President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo told reporters in Jakarta that his country’s relationship with Australia remained good.
“Indonesia and Australia have agreed to respect each other, to appreciate each other and not interfere in each others’ domestic affairs,” Jokowi said. “We have already agreed on that and now I have ordered the minister of defense and the military chief to address the problem.”
The neighboring nations, though close partners on many issues including terrorism and trade, have long had a turbulent relationship. Tensions have repeatedly flared over Australia’s policy of turning back boats to Indonesia that are carrying asylum seekers from other countries. Indonesia’s use of the death penalty — which Australia opposes — has also strained ties, particularly in 2015 when Indonesia executed two Australians for drug crimes.
And in 1999, the relationship suffered one of its most serious blows after Australia led a UN military force into the former Indonesian province of East Timor following a bloody independence ballot.
Indonesia says only part of Australian cooperation halted
Indonesia says only part of Australian cooperation halted
Kabul shakes as 5.8-magnitude earthquake hits eastern Afghanistan
- The 5.8-magnitude quake struck a mountainous area around 130 kilometers northeast of Kabul
- Earthquakes are common in Afghanistan, particularly along the Hindu Kush mountain range
KABUL: A strong earthquake rocked eastern Afghanistan including the capital Kabul on Friday, AFP journalists and residents said.
The 5.8-magnitude quake struck a mountainous area around 130 kilometers (80 miles) northeast of Kabul, the United States Geological Survey said.
The epicenter was near several remote villages and struck at 5:39 p.m. (1309 GMT), just as people in the Muslim-majority country were sitting down to break their Ramadan fast.
“We were waiting to do our iftars, a heavy earthquake shook us. It was very strong, it went on for almost 30 seconds,” said Zilgay Talabi, a resident of Khenj district near of the epicenter.
“Everyone was horrified and scared,” Talabi told AFP, saying he feared “landslides and avalanches” may follow.
Power was briefly cut in parts of the capital, while east of Kabul an AFP journalist in Nangarhar province also felt it.
Earthquakes are common in Afghanistan, particularly along the Hindu Kush mountain range, near where the Eurasian and Indian tectonic plates meet.
Haqmal Saad, spokesman for the Panjshir province police, described the quake as “very strong” and said the force was “gathering information on the ground.”
Mohibullah Jahid, head of Panjshir Natural Disaster Management agency, told AFP he was in touch with several officials in the area.
The district governor had told him there were reports of “minor damage, such as cracks in the walls, but we have not received anything serious, such as the collapse of houses or anything similar,” Jahid said.
Residents in Bamiyan and Wardak provinces, west of Kabul, told AFP they also felt the earthquake.
In Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, rescue service official Bilal Ahmad Faizi said the quake was felt in border areas.
In August last year, a shallow 6.0-magnitude quake in the country’s east wiped out mountainside villages and killed more than 2,200 people.
Weeks later, a 6.3-magnitude quake in northern Afghanistan killed at least 27 people.
Large tremors in western Herat, near the Iranian border, in 2023, and in Nangarhar province in 2022, killed hundreds and destroyed thousands of homes.
Many homes in the predominantly rural country, which has been devastated by decades of war, are shoddily built.
Poor communication networks and infrastructure in mountainous Afghanistan have hampered disaster responses in the past, preventing authorities from reaching far-flung villages for hours or even days before they could assess the extent of the damage.
