Indonesia
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Ten-Year Review: Signatory Indonesia has pledged to ratify the convention, but it has not taken any steps to do so, aside from holding stakeholder consultations. Indonesia has participated in meetings of the convention, but not since September 2016. It voted in favor of a key United Nations (UN) resolution promoting universalization of the convention in December 2019.
Indonesia states that it has never used, produced, or exported cluster munitions, but it has acquired them in the past and possesses a stockpile.
Policy
The Republic of Indonesia signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008.
Indonesia has not taken any steps to ratify the convention, aside from holding stakeholder consultations.[1] Indonesia has not introduced the ratification request to its national parliament for consideration and approval. Nonetheless, several government officials have stated their desire for Indonesia to ratify the convention.[2]
Indonesia 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.[3] Indonesia hosted a regional conference on the convention in Bali in November 2009.
Indonesia has participated in meetings of the convention, but not since September 2016.[4] However, it has attended regional workshops on the convention, such as one hosted by Lao PDR in Vientiane in April 2019.[5]
In December 2019, Indonesia voted in favor of a UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution that urged states outside the Convention on Cluster Munitions to “join as soon as possible.”[6] It has voted in favor of the annual UNGA resolution promoting the convention since it was first introduced in 2015.
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.[7]
Stockpiling
Indonesia possesses cluster munitions, but it has not shared information on the types and quantities stockpiled.[8]
Jane’s Information Group reported in 2004 that Indonesia possesses United States (US)-made Rockeye cluster bombs.[9]
In June 2020, Indonesia received a shipment of 36 Brazilian-made ASTROS II Mk. 6 multi-barrel rocket launchers, capable of firing SS-60 and SS-80 300mm surface-to-surface rockets or SS-150 450mm rockets.[10] The SS-60 and SS-80 rockets can be equipped to deliver either a unitary high explosive warhead or multiple submunitions.[11] The payload version for the ASTROS II acquired by Indonesia is not known, and Indonesian officials have never responded to requests from the Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) to clarify this question.[12]
[1] In October 2017, a government representative said that stakeholder consultations on the convention were continuing. Cluster Munition Coalition (CMC) meeting with Danny Rahdiansyah, First Secretary, Permanent Mission of Indonesia to the UN, New York, 18 October 2017. Indonesia has conducted extensive consultations on the matter 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 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] CMC campaign meeting with Amb. Agus Sardjana, in Dubrovnik, 9 September 2015; and Monitor interview with Lynda K. Wardhani, Counsellor, Permanent Mission of the Republic of Indonesia to the UN, Geneva, 24 June 2015.
[3] 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.
[4] Indonesia participated in the convention’s meetings of States Parties in 2011–2012 and 2016 as well as the First Review Conference in Dubrovnik, Croatia in September 2015 and intersessional meetings in 2011–2015.
[5] Regional Seminar on Landmines, Cluster Munitions and Explosive Remnants of War, Vientiane, Lao DPR, 29–30 April 2019. See, “Experts Discuss Landmine-related Risks At A Regional Seminar,” Lao News Agency, 2 May 2019. Indonesia attended another regional workshop on the convention in 2017. Final Report of the South East Asia Regional Seminar, “Cooperating to implement the CCM: The country coalition concept,” Bangkok, Thailand, 16–17 March 2017.
[6] “Implementation of the Convention on Cluster Munitions,” UN General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 74/62, 12 December 2019.
[7] Statement of Indonesia, Lima Conference on Cluster Munitions, 24 May 2007. Notes by Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).
[8] 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.
[9] Robert Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, Issue 44 (Surrey, Jane’s Information Group, 2004), p. 840.
[10] “Indonesia receives more ASTROS II multiple-launch rocket systems,” Asia Pacific Defense Journal, 18 June 2020.
[11] If they contain explosive submunitions then they are prohibited by the Convention on Cluster Munitions. For more information, see: Stop Explosive Investments “Avibras (Brazil) ,” undated.
[12] Jane’s 360, “ASTROS II boosts firepower,” 5 November 2014. See also, Militerhankam, “Astros II Mk 6 MLRS Milik TNI AD,” 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. See, Roberto Godoy, “Brasileira Avibrás fecha contrato de US$ 400 milhões com a Indonésia” (‘‘Brazilian Avibrás wins US $400 million contract with Indonesia’’), Estado, 21 November 2012.