Jakarta – Two Indonesian businessmen are on trial in Michigan, the United States, for attempting to illegally smuggle weapons into Indonesia. The company they were working for was a recognized weapons seller to the Indonesian Air Jakarta Post's Ridwan Max Sijabat and Tiarma Siboro issues behind the case.
During the United States' 15-year ban on the sale of armaments and spare parts to Indonesia, the Air Force's arsenal stayed in surprisingly good shape.
In military exercises in 2002, this air power went on show. At Bawean Island in East Java, military top brass and other dignitaries watched as two pairs of F-16 Falcon bombers blasted into the sky and engaged in a mock dogfight.
A year later, several units of the British-made OV-Bronco spy aircraft flew over Aceh, while a pair of Falcons gave air support to Scorpion tanks and thousands of soldiers during the offensive against Free Aceh Movement rebels in the conflict-scarred province.
Air Force spokesman First Air Marshall Sagom Tamboen recently admitted to local media that to get around the US ban, Indonesia had sourced aircraft parts from an international "gray market" so its US-made war machines could stay in operation.
Sagom said third-party dealers, who source equipment from US arms manufacturers and international weapons markets, had ensured around 30 percent of the nation's existing Bronco aircraft could remain operational.
According to Sagom, the Air Force had recently ordered a number of radar parts for F-5 Tiger bombers from PT Ataru Indonesia, a recognized government arms contractor and local subsidiary of Singapore-based Indodial PTE Limited, confirming the contracts were made during the 15-year embargo period.
Ataru had won a total of 15 arms procurement contracts from the Air Force, he said.
However, on April 9 this year the United States authorities put a stop to Ataru's lucrative business with the arrests of the company's president director, Indonesian businessman Hadianto Djoko Djuliarso, compatriot Ignatius Ferdinand Soeharli, Ibrahim bin Amran of Singapore-based Indodial PTE Limited and British Singapore resident David Beecroft. Hadianto and Ibrahim were charged with money laundering and violating US export laws when they were first detained in Hawaii. All four suspects were later moved to a US federal court in Detroit, Michigan, to have their cases heard there.
They are charged with trying to source and ship 245 air-to-air Sidewinder missiles, 882 H&K machine guns, 800 handguns, 16 sniper rifles, 5,000 rounds of ammunition and parts for F-5 Tiger jet bombers to Indonesia without proper US export licenses.
The bulk of the attempted purchases came from a Michigan-based arms company, the reason their trial has been moved there.
US authorities also questioned two Indonesian Air Force officers who had accompanied the brokers to Hawaii, but found no evidence that they had any role in the transactions. Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono also claimed the deal was also outside the government's knowledge.
Despite the official denials, the trial of the four men could prove to be an embarrassing sideshow for Jakarta-Washington defense relations. And the timing could not be worse; the United States only lifted the ban on military supplies and training to the country in December, while Hadianto, Ibrahim and associates were allegedly making the weapons deals many months earlier.
The question remains – with Washington signaling for months last year that it planned to normalize military relations with Indonesia, why didn't the four wait until the arms embargo was lifted and go ahead with the deals when they were legal?
According to Effendy Choirie, a legislator of the National Awakening Party, local corruption involving Air Force generals and their families was behind the deal and meant it could not wait.
Meanwhile, Andi Widjajanto, a military analyst at the Centre for Strategic International Studies said he had long known about the clandestine supply of aircraft equipment from the United States through "gray markets".
During the embargo, he said, the military had no choice but to discreetly buy weapons and parts on international markets to keep its jet fighters and C-130 cargo aircraft operational, he said.
Indria Samego of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences said despite the recent streamlining of government procedures to buy arms, "old players linked to former president Soeharto's cronies and retired and active military officials are still there and they were involved in arms supply in the past few years."
Defense Ministry secretary general Lt. Gen. Sjafrie Sjamsuddin denied any knowledge of the US graft case. He claimed arms deals conducted by all the military's forces were reported to his office, with their budgets audited by the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK).
However, he also said the TNI Headquarters and Defense Ministry had lists of private arms suppliers, many which he said had been struck off for "unprofessional behavior".
This would in part explain the many recent arms deals involving the government, which have been tainted by alleged graft. The last occurred in the ongoing procurement of Mi-17 helicopters from Russia. Only four of the helicopters were bought, and the BPK in its 2004 audit of the deal indicated graft caused the state to lose US$3.24 million. No one has yet been charged in that case.
Legislators have also questioned a 2004 deal between the industry and trade ministry and a government-appointed private company to buy Sukhoi war planes from Russia, although little more is known about the case.
The same year, the London-based Guardian newspaper revealed a British business allegedly bribed Siti Hardiyanti "Tutut", a daughter of former president Soeharto, giving her a 16.5 million pounds sterling "present" to smooth the sale of 100 Scorpion tanks for the Army between 1995 and 1996.
Investigation into the case reached a dead end after both the Defense Ministry and the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) said they found no evidence of irregularities in the deal, although Indonesia had to pay two and a-half times the amount that Singapore paid for each of the tanks.