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Indonesia
Cluster Munition Ban Policy
Policy
The Republic of Indonesia signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions on 3 December 2008.
It is not clear when the ratification package for the Convention on Cluster Munitions will be presented to Indonesia’s parliament for its consideration and approval. Indonesia last provided an update on its ratification of the convention in September 2011, when it informed States Parties that “we continue to conduct activities to create more awareness among our relevant national stakeholders” in order to “expedite the process of its ratification.”[1] The national consultations on the convention began in 2010.[2]
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.[3] It hosted a regional conference on the convention in Bali, Indonesia in November 2009.
Despite not ratifying, Indonesia has continued to actively engage in the work of the Convention on Cluster Munitions. Indonesia has participated in every Meeting of States Parties of the convention, with the exception of the Fourth Meeting of States Parties in Lusaka, Zambia in September 2013. It has attended every intersessional meeting of the convention in Geneva, including in April 2014.
Indonesia voted in favor of UN General Assembly Resolution 68/182 on 18 December 2013, which expressed “outrage” at the Syrian government’s “continued widespread and systematic gross violations of human rights…including those involving the use of…cluster munitions.”[4]
To mark International Day for Mine Action on 4 April 2014, the Institute of International Studies at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta and Jesuit Refugee Service Indonesia held a discussion about steps that can be taken to encourage the Indonesian government to ratify the Convention on Cluster Munitions.[5]
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.[6]
Indonesia has acknowledged having a stockpile of cluster munitions, but the size and precise content is not known. Jane’s Information Group lists Indonesia as possessing Rockeye cluster bombs.[7] In June 2010, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs representative stated that Indonesia was undertaking an inventory of its stockpile of cluster munitions.[8] Indonesia has emphasized the importance of allowing independent observers, including civil society, to witness stockpile destruction.[9]
[1] 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.
[2] 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.
[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] “Situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic,” UNGA Resolution A/RES/68/182, 18 December 2013.
[5] Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Indonesia web post, “Ban Landmines and Peace,” 5 April 2014.
[6] Statement of Indonesia, Lima Conference on Cluster Munitions, 24 May 2007. Notes by Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF).
[7] Robert Hewson, ed., Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons, Issue 44 (Surrey, UK, Jane’s Information Group Limited, 2004), p. 840.
[8] Email from Luna Amanda Fahmi, Department of Foreign Affairs, 18 June 2010.
[9] Statement of Indonesia, Convention on Cluster Munitions First Meeting of States Parties, Vientiane, 11 November 2010. Notes by the CMC.
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