The Indonesian Army has decided to procure up to 100 refurbished
Leopard 2A6 main battle tanks (MBT) worth US$280 million from Germany
and has ruled out previous plans to buy similar tanks from the
Netherlands, Deputy Defense Minister Lt. Gen. (ret) Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin
said on Monday.
“We chose Germany because there are certainties
in terms of time of procurement and the volume to meet our needs,”
Sjafrie told a press conference at his office. “We have stopped the
ongoing processes with the Netherlands to let us focus on the
procurement from Germany.”
The government would use foreign loans for the procurement, he added.
The
Dutch government previously had issues with its parliament in the
procurement plan, due to considering alleged rampant human rights abuses
in Indonesia.
Your comments:
Could
someone tell me where the tanks will be used? In the jungles of Papua?
Not a chance. They’ll need a lot of fuel. How are they going to be
refueled in the jungles of Papua? Other than that, what’s left? The
roads on Java or Bali? Please tell me! The only forces you can use there
are commandoes or marines. Small patrol boats would be far more useful
given that this is an archipelago.
John Heerma van Voss
The
Dutch government resisted selling tanks to murderers, but it seems that
the German government does not care much about human rights. I’m
ashamed of my government.
Markus Hagenauer
The
article implies that the German government is not concerned with
Indonesia’s rampant human rights abuses, especially by our armed forces
and the police.
Perhaps Germany is more concerned with its
economy? Selling some old hardware can’t do much harm in terms of making
some money. In any case, why would we need battle tanks?
Surely
not for keeping internal law and order? If it is to protect from an
external enemy, I would suggest that 100 old tanks wouldn’t do the job,
unless the enemy was Timor Leste.
Henry Manoe