Time to drop Suharto’s arms debt

Former Indonesian President’s death must trigger cancellation of illegitimate debts

Jubilee Debt Campaign, Jubilee Scotland and the Anti-Debt Coalition Indonesia are calling on the UK government to cancel £525 million of illegitimate debt owed by Indonesia from loans made to former President Suharto, who died on Sunday 27th January

Much of Indonesia’s debt to the UK was contracted in the 1980s and 1990s to buy British arms, including tanks, water cannon and aircraft. At least 75% of the £705 million Indonesia owes the UK – which is still being repaid – is known to relate to arms sales [1]. Suharto’s use of arms to suppress his own people, such as in East Timor, is notorious.

Ben Young, of Jubilee Scotland, said:

“Indonesia is still paying the UK millions in debt every year from arms loans made to Suharto. Rich countries including the UK knowingly lent this dictator billions of dollars, to fund arms sales including Hawk jets and Scorpion tanks. It’s time the Indonesian people stopped paying for their own oppression.”

Yuyun Harmono, of Koalisi Anti Utang (Anti Debt Coalition Indonesia), said:

“The Indonesian media are maintaining that Suharto had no faults; they need reminding that he was a dictator and has committed many crimes. Suharto took out many loans from the multilateral institutions, and from the UK, the US, Australia and Germany. These loans were not taken out by Indonesia, but by a dictator. We’re saying that the Indonesian people will not now pay the loans back.”

Sarah Williams, of Jubilee Debt Campaign, said:

“After the fall of Saddam Hussein there was clear international agreement that whatever the reasons for the original loans, the Iraqi people should not have to repay their dictator’s debts. Yet ten years after the fall of Suharto, the Indonesian people are doing exactly that, while more than half the population live below the poverty line.

“Suharto’s death is a chance for the UK and other rich countries to take the lead in cleaning up international lending – by cancelling Indonesia’s illegitimate debts.”

The following letter by Ben Young of Jubilee Scotland was published in the Glasgow Herald in response to the Herald’s obituary on Suharto:

Your obituary of General Suharto rightly emphasises the extraordinary brutality of his rule, but overstates the economic development over which he presided. Human development indicators such as life expectancy, child mortality and education improved steadily in the decades after the Second World War; Suharto’s rise to power is not marked by any acceleration in the rate of improvement. This suggests that development was actually initiated by President Sukarno and continued despite, not because of, his successor’s deeply corrupt rule.

Nor should we gloss over the predicament of most Indonesians today, half of whom live under the $2 per day poverty line. The country also has colossal debts, spending three times as much servicing them as it does on health and education combined. Suharto’s estate, meanwhile, contains up to $35bn stolen from the public purse. This is the legacy of the man who styled himself “father of development”.

Ben Young, National Co-ordinator, Jubilee Scotland, 41 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh.

 Also published was a letter by James Picardo of Jubilee Scotland in response to The Independent’s report on Suharto’s death 

The justice we owe the Indonesians

 It is true that the Indonesian people will never have the satisfaction of seeing the dictator Suharto brought to justice (report, 28 January). But there is still a hope for some measure of justice from the international players who were willing to fund his murderous regime – a roll of shame which includes the UK.

The £500m the UK government lent to Suharto was not only used for tanks and planes to shore up his vile reign, but is still being paid off by the Indonesian people, and hobbling their steps towards development and democracy. Civil society groups in Indonesia have long called for the cancellation of this odious debt. To listen to them now – and act on their wishes – would be to make some small amends for our past role.

James Picardo

Jubilee Scotland, Edinburgh

Spread the word...