J

strong>July 2, Online

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