Indonesia

Cluster Munition Ban Policy

Last updated: 26 June 2018

Summary: Signatory Indonesia has made little progress to ratify the convention after years of stakeholder consultations. It has participated in many of the convention’s meetings, most recently in September 2016. Indonesia voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting the convention in December 2017.

Indonesia states that it has never used, produced, or exported cluster munitions. 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.

Indonesia has made little progress to ratify the convention over the past decade other than stakeholder consultations.[1] In October 2017, a government representative said that stakeholder consultations on the convention are continuing.[2] Previously, in 2015, another official said that Indonesia was consolidating internal issues relating to its implementation of the convention.[3] Another representative said the convention was awaiting parliamentary approval.[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 in November 2009.

Indonesia has participated in several meetings of the convention, most recently in September 2016.[6] It was invited to but did not attend the Seventh Meeting of States Parties in Geneva in September 2017. Indonesia attended the convention’s intersessional meetings in 2011–2015. It has participated regional workshops on the convention, most recently in Bangkok, Thailand in March 2017.[7]

In December 2017, Indonesia voted in favor of a key UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that urges states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[8] It voted in favor of previous UNGA resolutions promoting the convention in 2015 and 2016.[9]

Indonesia has voted in favor of UNGA resolutions expressing outrage at the use of cluster munitions in Syria.[10] It has also voted in favor of Human Rights Council resolutions condemning the cluster munition attacks.[11]

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

Use, production, and transfer

Indonesia has stated that it has never used, produced, or exported cluster munitions.[12]

Stockpiling

Indonesia stockpiles cluster munitions, but it has not disclosed information on the types and quantities.[13]

According to Jane’s Information Group, it possesses US-made Rockeye cluster bombs.[14]

Indonesia has not responded to an April 2017 letter from the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) requesting clarification on a report that it received Brazilian-made ASTROS II, a type of multi-barrel rocket launcher, and SS-40, SS-60, and/or SS-80 cargo rockets in or after 2012.[15] Rockets containing explosive submunitions are prohibited by the Convention on Cluster Munitions.



[1] Indonesia has conducted extensive consultations on the convention since 2010 as part of its ratification of the convention. Indonesia’s armed forces, Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Law and Human Rights Affairs, and members of parliament have reviewed and discussed the ban convention. Statement of Indonesia, 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.

[2] Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) meeting with Danny Rahdiansyah, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of Indonesia to the UN, New York, 18 October 2017.

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

[4] Monitor interview with Lynda K. Wardhani, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of the Republic of Indonesia to the UN, Geneva, 24 June 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] Indonesia participated in the convention’s Meetings of States Parties in 2011–2012 and 2016 as well as the First Review Conference in 2015.

[7] Final Report of the South East Asia Regional Seminar, “Cooperating to implement the CCM: The country coalition concept,” Bangkok, Thailand, 16–17 March 2017.

[8]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 72/54, 4 December 2017.

[9]Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 71/45, 5 December 2016; and “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UNGA Resolution 70/54, 7 December 2015.

[10]Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution 71/203, 19 December 2016.

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

[13] In 2010, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs representative stated that Indonesia was conducting an inventory of its stockpile of cluster munitions. Email from Luna Amanda Fahmi, Department of Foreign Affairs, 18 June 2010.

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

[15] Jane’s 360, “ASTROS II boosts firepower,” 5 November 2014. See also, Defense Studies, “Astros II Mk 6 MLRS Milik TNI AD,” Militerhankam.com (military defense, in Indonesian), undated; and CMC letter to Retno Lestari Priansari Marsudi, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia, 18 April 2017. According to a Brazilian media article, the purchase agreement was signed in 2012. Roberto Godoy, “Brasileira Avibrás fecha contrato de US$ 400 milhões com a Indonésia,” Estado, 21 November 2012.