Indonesia

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 18 July 2016

Summary: Signatory Indonesia’s ratification of the convention does not appear to have progressed after years of stakeholder consultations. Indonesia has participated in meetings of the convention, including the First Review Conference in September 2015. It voted in favor of a UN resolution on the convention in December 2015. Indonesia states that it has never used, produced, or transferred cluster munitions, but it has yet to disclose the types and quantities of its stockpiled cluster munitions.

Policy

The Republic of Indonesia signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008.

In September 2015, a government representative told the CMC that Indonesia is in the process of expediting its ratification of the convention and consolidating internal issues relating to its implementation.[1] Previously, in June 2015, a government representative said the convention was awaiting parliamentary approval.[2] Indonesia conducted extensive internal consultations on its ratification since 2010.[3]

On 7 December 2015, Indonesia voted in favor of a resolution by the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on the Convention on Cluster Munitions, which urges states outside the convention to “join as soon as possible.”[4]

Indonesia actively participated in the Oslo Process that created the Convention on Cluster Munitions and was one of the strongest supporters of a comprehensive ban on the weapon.[5] It hosted a regional conference on the convention in Bali, Indonesia in November 2009.

Indonesia participated in the convention’s First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015, but did not make any statements. It attended the convention’s Meetings of States Parties in 2011–2012 and participated in intersessional meetings in Geneva in 2011–2015 as well as regional workshops on the convention. Indonesia has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions condemning the use of cluster munitions in Syria.[6] It has voted for Human Rights Council resolutions condemning cluster munition attacks in Syria.[7]

Jesuit Refugee Service Indonesia works to encourage Indonesia’s ratification of the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[8]

Indonesia is a State Party to the Mine Ban Treaty. It is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Use, production, transfer, and stockpiling

Indonesia has stated that it has never used, produced, or transferred cluster munitions.[9]

Indonesia has acknowledged that it stockpiles cluster munitions, but it has not disclosed details on the quantities or types stockpiled. According to Jane’s Information Group, Indonesia possesses Rockeye cluster bombs.[10] In 2010, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs representative stated that Indonesia was conducting an inventory of its stockpile of cluster munitions.[11] Indonesia has emphasized the importance of allowing independent observers, including civil society, to witness stockpile destruction.[12]



[1] CMC campaign meeting with Amb. Agus Sardjana, Dubrovnik, 9 September 2015. Notes by the CMC.

[2] Monitor interview with Lynda K. Wardhani, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of the Republic of Indonesia to the UN, Geneva, 24 June 2015.

[3] The ban convention is being considered by the Indonesian armed forces, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Law and Human Rights Affairs, and by members of parliament. Statement by Amb. Dimas Samodrarum, Embassy of Indonesia to Lebanon, Convention on Cluster Munitions Second Meeting of States Parties, Beirut, 13 September 2011; interview with Roy Soemirat, Head of Section, Directorate of International Security and Disarmament, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jakarta, 5 April 2011; and email from Luna Amanda Fahmi, Directorate of International Security and Disarmament, Department of Foreign Affairs, 18 June 2010.

[4]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 70/54, 7 December 2015.

[5] For more details on Indonesia’s policy and practice up to early 2009, see Human Rights Watch and Landmine Action, Banning Cluster Munitions: Government Policy and Practice (Ottawa: Mines Action Canada, May 2009), pp. 91–92.

[6]Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 69/189, 18 December 2014.

[8] Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Indonesia web post, “Ban Landmines and Peace,” 5 April 2014.

[9] Statement of Indonesia, Lima Conference on Cluster Munitions, 24 May 2007. Notes by Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).

[10] Robert Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, Issue 44 (Surrey, UK, Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2004), p. 840.

[11] Email from Luna Amanda Fahmi, Department of Foreign Affairs, 18 June 2010.

[12] Statement of Indonesia, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Meeting of States Parties, Vientiane, 11 November 2010. Notes by the CMC.


Mine Ban Policy

Last updated: 31 October 2011

Commitment to the Mine Ban Treaty

Mine Ban Treaty status

State Party

National implementation measures

Emergency Law No. 12/1951

Transparency reporting

21 June 2011

Key developments

Destroyed 2,524 mines previously retained for training

Policy

The Republic of Indonesia signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997 and ratified it on 20 February 2007, becoming a State Party on 1 August 2007. Indonesia submitted its fourth Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 report on 21 June 2011.[1]

Indonesia states that its Emergency Law No. 12/1951 on Fire Arms and Explosives provides for the imposition of penal sanctions as required by the treaty.[2] Previously a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official said that the ministry has raised the possibility of new implementation legislation specifically for the Mine Ban Treaty in interagency meetings.[3] In March 2011 a Foreign Ministry official said this was still under review and asked for guidelines.[4]

Indonesia participated in the Tenth Meeting of States Parties to the Mine Ban Treaty in Geneva in November–December 2010 where it served as vice-president of the meeting and co-rapporteur on Mine Clearance, Mine Risk Education and Mine Action Technologies and made a presentation as outgoing co-chair on Stockpile Destruction and on its implementation of the treaty. Indonesia attended the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in Geneva in June 2011 and made a statement on partnerships and coordination.

A Foreign Ministry official previously stated to the Monitor that Indonesia believes that, “any mines, even anti-vehicle ones, which are fitted with sensitive fuzes or anti-handling devices which can be triggered by the presence or proximity of human activity qualify as antipersonnel mines according to Article 2, [and] should be banned.”[5]

Indonesia is not party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons.

Production, transfer, stockpile destruction, and retention

Indonesia has stated that it has not produced or used antipersonnel mines.[6] Indonesia destroyed the last of its 11,603 stockpiled antipersonnel mines on 13 November 2008.[7]

Indonesia initially stated that it would retain 4,978 mines for training purposes.[8] However, after reviewing its need to retain that number of mines,[9] Indonesia destroyed 2,524 mines on 15 December 2009.[10] At the end of 2010, Indonesia reported retaining 2,454 mines, including 1,500 PMA-1 mines, seven PMRS mines, and 947 K-440 directional fragmentation mines.[11] In February 2011, an Indonesian military official informed the Monitor that Indonesia had plans to conduct verification of its data on mines retained to determine which of the mines should be destroyed.[12]

Mines retained for training purposes are under the control of the Director General of Defense Strength in the Ministry of Defense. Indonesia has not provided specific details, but has said the mines will be used as “instruction/teaching materials” to enhance the identification, detection, and destruction of mines in general, and “particularly for the purpose of preparing Indonesia’s participation for UN peacekeeping operations.”[13]

In June 2010, a Foreign Ministry official said that the training program had not yet begun, and that the government “is still in the process of reviewing its need to retain live mines.”[14]

In March 2011 a Ministry of Defense official informed the Monitor that it needs to retain live mines because dummy mines would not be taken seriously by new recruits. He stated that mines are used in yearly training of new recruits, including demonstration of the mines’ destructive force. He reiterated previous statements that mines retained would be needed for possible future training of Indonesian peacekeepers.[15] Also in March 2011, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs official stated that Indonesia would retain live mines for training, and noted that Indonesia participates in military missions outside the UN under the Organization of Islamic Conference framework and bilaterally under arrangements in Southeast Asia, such as Mindanao. Indonesia stated that it has plans to send observers to Cambodia and Thailand.[16]

Indonesia has not reported that it has consumed any of the mines it has retained for training in the past four years.[17] A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official explained that mines had not been used in military trainings due to a need to bring in specialists.[18]

 



[1] The report covers calendar year 2010. Indonesia submitted previous Article 7 reports on 3 June 2010, 17 April 2009, and 21 January 2008.

[2] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Form A, 21 June 2011. The law was appended to Indonesia’s initial Article 7 report and provides for the death penalty, life imprisonment, or imprisonment for a maximum of 20 years for the import, transfer, receiving, acquiring, possession, ownership, transportation, hiding, bringing, use or export of firearms, munitions, or explosives, including mines.

[3] Email from Andy Rachmianto, Deputy Director, Directorate for International Security and Disarmament, Department of Foreign Affairs, 23 March 2009.

[4] Interview with Roy Soemirat, Head of Section, Directorate of International Security and Disarmament, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jakarta, 5 April 2011.

[5] Email from Luna Amanda Fahmi, Desk Officer for Disarmament Affairs, Directorate for International Security and Disarmament, Department of Foreign Affairs, 18 June 2010.

[6] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Form E, 21 June 2011; and statement of Indonesia, Tenth Meeting of States Parties, Mine Ban Treaty, Geneva, November 2010. There have been conflicting reports about past mine use by Indonesian forces in West Papua in 1961–1962 and in East Timor in the 1970s. See Landmine Monitor Report 2000, pp. 452–453.

[7] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Form F, 17 April 2009. In Form G, Indonesia reports that the 11,603 destroyed mines also included 78 Kayu mines and nine BG M35 mines. In total, Indonesia reports destroying 9,828 Yugoslav PMA-1; 1,612 Yugoslav PMRS; 78 Russian Kayu; 32 Korean K-440; 26 Yugoslav Armadila; 10 Yugoslav Honckin; nine Belgian BG M35; and eight Indian MK I. The nomenclature for several of the mines in Indonesia’s Article 7 report, such as the Kayu, Armadila, and Honckin, are not standard.

[8] Statement of Indonesia, Ninth Meeting of States Parties, Mine Ban Treaty, Geneva, 26 November 2008.

[9] Email from Luna Amanda Fahmi, Department of Foreign Affairs, 18 June 2010.

[10] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Form G, 3 June 2010. Indonesia reports that it destroyed 1,031 PMA-1 and 1,493 PMRS antipersonnel mines, all on 15 December 2009 in Pameungpeuk, West Java.

[11] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Form D, 21 June 2011. Indonesia’s previous Form H, indicated the K-440s are electrically fuzed. If these “Claymore-type” mines can only be used in command-detonated mode (as opposed to victim-activated, usually with a tripwire), then they do not qualify as antipersonnel mines under the Mine Ban Treaty.

[12] Interview with Col. Jimmy Alexander Adirman, Head of Inventory Sub-Directorate, Material Directorate, General Defense Strength Directorate, Ministry of Defense, Jakarta, 10 February 2011.

[13] Mine Ban Treaty Article 7 Report, Form D (1)(b), 3 June 2010. The same language is used in an email from Luna Amanda Fahmi, Department of Foreign Affairs, 18 June 2010. 

[14] Email from Luna Amanda Fahmi, Department of Foreign Affairs, 18 June 2010. This was the response to a question from the Monitor about whether Indonesia needed to retain live mines, as opposed to inert mines, for training purposes.

[15] Interview withBrig.-Gen.Robby Tuilan, Chief of Industry, Research and Development Center, Ministry of Defense, Jakarta, 7 March 2011.

[16] Interview with Roy Soemirat, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jakarta, 7 March 2011.

[17] Article 7 Reports, Form D, 21 June 2011, 3 June 2010, 17 April 2009, and 21 January 2008.

[18] Interview with Roy Soemirat, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jakarta, 7 March 2011.