Wiranto shrugs off U.S. visa ban, calls it baseless<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta\/Bandung<\/p>\n
The United States State Department has reportedly put former
\nIndonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. (ret) Wiranto and five other
\ngenerals on its visa watch list, but the presidential candidate
\nbranded the report as an "old baseless issue".<\/p>\n
Wiranto told reporters in Bandung the issue was related to
\nrivalry in the upcoming presidential election here.<\/p>\n
"It is an old issue but I have proven that I had no
\ndifficulties when I went overseas to Singapore and China. All of
\nsudden this (issue) resurfaces, perhaps to color the presidential
\ncampaign," Wiranto said.<\/p>\n
Wiranto, who is one of Golkar Party's presidential candidates,
\nwas in Bandung to meet the Sundanese community under the
\nPaguyuban Pasundan. He was also scheduled to meet Abah Anom, a
\nrespected Muslim cleric who runs the Suralaya Islamic boarding
\nschool in Tasikmalaya, West Java.<\/p>\n
He said if the report that he was declared persona non grata
\nin the U.S. was continuously disseminated to the public, the move
\nwould be intended to foil his bid for the presidency.<\/p>\n
"It has been alleged that I have been involved in various
\ncommunal clashes in the past and in the recent Bank BNI scam, and
\ncertain groups have branded me a crooked politician, Now they are
\nrenewing the attack with the report that I and a number of
\ngenerals have been barred from entering some countries," Wiranto
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
U.S. daily Washington Post reported on Friday that the U.S.
\ngovernment had accused Wiranto and five former military officers
\nof war crimes in East Timor and put them on a visa watch list
\nbarring them from entering the country.<\/p>\n
The identity of the five others was not immediately available.<\/p>\n
Quoting anonymous State Department officials, the daily said
\nthe move expressed Washington's frustration following Jakarta's
\nrefusal to bring the officers to an international tribunal as
\nwell as Indonesia's failure to prosecute them for the crimes
\nagainst humanity in East Timor in 1999.<\/p>\n
But spokesman for the U.S. State Department Richard Boucher
\ndeclined to comment on the report, saying the watch list cited by
\nthe newspaper is a classified document, AFP reported.<\/p>\n
Tommy Soetomo, an operational director for Wiranto's
\npresidential campaign, told The Jakarta Post Wiranto had received
\nmany invitations from overseas, but could not fulfill them due to
\nhis tight schedule.<\/p>\n
"We have also met over 100 foreign journalists grouped in the
\nJakarta Foreign Correspondents Club (JFCC) and none of them asked
\nhim about this issue," Tommy said.<\/p>\n
In a discussion at the Jakarta Media Center (JMC) several
\nweeks ago, Wiranto said he was invited by a U.S.-based non-
\ngovernmental organization to visit the country to prove that he
\nwas not being barred from entering the U.S.<\/p>\n
Wiranto said on Saturday, however, he had no plan to visit the
\nU.S.<\/p>\n
"I'm not interested in visiting the U.S. and Europe," he said.<\/p>\n
Stanley Harsha, the spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta,
\ndeclined to comment on the matter.<\/p>\n
"I do not have the authority to speak about the eligibility of
\nindividual prospective visa applicants," he told the Post on
\nSaturday.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said
\nthe government had not been informed by the U.S. government about
\nthe issue.<\/p>\n
"The decision to bar an individual from entering a country,
\nfor whatever reasons, is done at the discretion of the country
\nand we shall respect it," he commented.<\/p>\n
TNI officers could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n
Wiranto was the TNI chief when violence ravaged East Timor
\nfollowing a popular ballot which resulted in independence for the
\nformer Indonesian province. Of 18 suspects brought to court in
\nthe crimes, the human rights court convicted two generals.
\nWiranto has never been implicated in the case.<\/p>",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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