PETALING JAYA: Deputy Foreign Minister Datuk Marzuki Yahya said the Indonesian government has made assurances that its soldiers will not repeat the incident of Dec 11.
He said Indonesia has informed Wisma Putra that its soldiers were in the wrong, and it acknowledged Malaysia’s protest note on the incursion involving two Tentera Nasional Indonesia (TNI) personnel into Malaysian territory.
He said Jakarta would make an effort to prevent a recurrence of the incident as it was a violation of Malaysia’s sovereignty.
Meanwhile, Defence Minister Mohamad Sabu said Malaysian-Indonesian military cooperation would not be jeopardised by the incident where five locals were held hostage by the Indonesian army after being accused of stealing wood near the Sarawak-Kalimantan border.
“The incident does not have any effect on Malaysian-Indonesian relationship. Our relationship with Indonesia is close. All problems can be resolved via negotiations.
“Bilateral relations, especially on military cooperation, is good. There is no major dispute due to this incident,” he said after attending a military function in Kuala Lumpur.
Two Indonesian soldiers had kidnapped five locals some 400m from the Serian-Kalimantan border. The two soldiers had accused the five locals of harvesting wood illegally in Indonesian territory.
According to a local daily, the five were subjected to physical abuse by the two soldiers before being brought to an Indonesian command post in Sungai Enteli.
After Malaysian soldiers were alerted to the incident and intervened, the release of the hostages was successfully negotiated.
