PROMOTING HUMAN RIGHTS, PEACE AND DEMOCRACY IN INDONESIA

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The following letter was sent by TAPOL and Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) to British Foreign Office Minister, Mike O'Brien, on 10 July 2003

See also press release dated 10 July 2003

Mike O’Brien,
Minister of State,
Foreign and Commonwealth Office,
Whitehall,
London SW1

Dear Mr O'Brien,

We hope that you have had time to consider the call for an international military embargo on Indonesia set out in the statement signed by 90 NGOs enclosed with TAPOL's letter of 23 June, and that you will be able to respond positively to this call.

The need for the British Government to impose an embargo has attained a new urgency following the disclosure - in the Government's Strategic Export Controls Report 2002 - of a huge rise in the number and value of licences granted for the export of military equipment to Indonesia.

The number of licences issued for equipment on the military list rose from 54 in 2001 to 182 in 2002. This is by far the highest number of licences issued in the last ten years and is almost double the previous highest of 99 in 1996.

The value of licences increased from £2 million in 2000 to £15.5 million in 2001 to £41 million in 2002, that is a 20-fold increase over two years. Even in 2001, when the licences were worth 15.5 million, the value of UK licences was two-and-a-half times greater than its nearest European Union competitor, Belgium. We conclude from this that the UK's dominance of the European arms trade with Indonesia increased by a further substantial amount in 2002.

We are alarmed not only by the massive scale of this increase, but also by the nature of the equipment being exported. This includes a range of lethal equipment or equipment required to upgrade or maintain previously-exported major weapons systems: aircraft cannons; armoured all wheel drive vehicles; and components or equipment associated with air to air missile launching equipment, air to surface missile launching equipment, aircraft cannons, armoured fighting vehicles, armoured personnel carriers, combat aircraft, combat helicopters, military training aircraft, military transport aircraft, tanks, general military aircraft.

Although it is not clear from the generic descriptions of the equipment, we assume that a substantial quantity of the components or associated equipment is for the Hawk jets and Scorpion tanks currently being used by the Indonesian military, TNI, in its war in Aceh, which has already claimed dozens of civilian casualties. Please let us know whether this is indeed the case and, if so, which items are associated with the Hawks and Scorpions.

We can only assume that the reason for the unexplained increase in military exports to Indonesia is connected to the TNI's wish to upgrade its offensive capabilities in areas of conflict such as Aceh and West Papua. The White Paper on Defence issued on 15 April this year by Minister of Defence Matori Abdul Djalil declares that: ‘The threat of military invasion or aggression by other countries against Indonesia can now be regarded as being very slight indeed.’ Therefore, it argues, the main tasks of the Indonesian armed forces are domestic, including the suppression of separatism in Aceh and Papua and other threats such as ‘radical actions promoting primordial ethnic, race of religious aims and ideologies at variance with Pancasila’. Moreover, Minister of Defence Matori is on record this week as saying that ‘preserving the unitary state of Indonesia is more important than human rights’.

It is clear that the supply of military equipment to Indonesia cannot be justified on the grounds that it is required for self-defence as the concerns and interests of the Indonesian armed forces lie elsewhere.

The alarming increase in arms sales also comes at a time when the TNI is on the offensive politically as well as militarily. The period of reformasi, which followed the downfall of Suharto, has come to an end and the the TNI, particularly the army, is now dictating the political agenda in Jakarta and reversing the establishment of civilian supremacy over the military. The Defence White Paper and the draft TNI law now before parliament make it clear that the army aims to achieve the goal of seizing back from the police sole responsibility for domestic security and restoring the political role it enjoyed under Suharto as the guardian of state unity. The decision to pursue the military as opposed to political solution to the conflict in Aceh is further evidence of the TNI’s resurgent political role.

For these reasons, we regard the increase in military sales as indefensible. Would you kindly explain the Government’s justification for it.

We believe a military embargo is essential for the following reasons:

The very deployment of Hawks and Scorpions to Aceh is without question a breach of 'assurances' given by Indonesia that British military equipment will not be used 'offensively' or for 'counter-insurgency' purposes. The Hawks and Scorpions are playing a key role in a major military offensive; they are not in Aceh for harmless display purposes.

We have long maintained that Indonesia's 'assurances' are worthless given its record of repeatedly using imported equipment in East Timor, Aceh and West Papua and against its own citizens. It is clear from statements by military chiefs and government officials around the time of your visit to Jakarta in June that they do not intend to comply with any restrictions on the use of the equipment and that they regard the 'assurances' as either non-existent or non-binding. In our view, all this makes the British Government's continued reliance on the 'assurances' untenable.

We also believe that the British Government's assertion that it will monitor the use of the equipment and follow up credible allegations of misuse indicates an appalling abdication of responsibility by the Government. In effect, what you are saying is that you will only take action when the equipment is, in your view, misused. Or, in other words, that you will wait until it is used to perpetrate human rights violations (possibly involving the killing of civilians) before you take appropriate action. You are placing the onus on people on the ground - i.e. the potential victims - to produce 'credible' evidence of the misuse of equipment when they are clearly in no position to do so given the military’s tight grip on conditions throughout Aceh.

You have stated in your letter to TAPOL of 19 June and in replies to parliamentary questions that you have warned the Indonesian Government of the possible consequences for military sales and Britain's future military relationship with Indonesia. We conclude from this your main purpose is to safeguard arms sales. We are deeply concerned that the British Government’s policy on this matter is determined by the need to preserve and increase the value of arms sales and not by concerns about human rights. We can see no other explanation for your reluctance to take firmer measures against Indonesia.

In view of all the above, we hope that you will now be able to respond positively to our call for the British Government to:

1. Impose an embargo on the supply of military, security and police equipment to Indonesia, to include contracts agreed before the entry into force of the embargo and the revocation of all existing licences;
2. Insist on the withdrawal from Aceh of all military equipment previously supplied by Britain to Indonesia;
3. Suspend all forms of co-operation with the Indonesian military and police special forces to include training, participation in seminars and conferences, joint exercises and senior level military exchanges;

We thank you for your attention to this critical issue and we look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Paul Barber
TAPOL

Ann Feltham
CAAT

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