ING and RABO-bank should stop arms trade with Indonesia

War - It's war for a long time already in Indonesia. In Aceh, Papua and the Moluccans military violence is used regularly against citizens. The Indonesian armed forces are planning to buy naval vessels in the Netherlands. Those can be used to continue war and repression.

Guidelines - The European Union has agreed to refrain from selling arms when they can be used for internal repression, aggravate conflicts or may be a burden on the economic capacity of the recipient country. For these reasons the sale should be halted.

Costs - The RABO and ING-bank have agreed to take 95% of the financial risk. When the vessels are not paid in the end, the Dutch government will pay the loss by the banks. For the first two - of four - ships the amount assured is 500 million euro. Financing the deal and delivering the ships are a bad ideas, because:

• The Indonesian armed forces are still the dominant factor in society. Those forces are a barrier to the needed democratic reforms. They should not be supported with new major weapons systems. Major arms sales expand the prestige of the military.
• Human rights violations in Indonesia are committed on a regular basis, especially by the armed forces. The ships are useable for operations involving human rights violations.
• The Netherlands spend 50 million euro on development aid to Indonesia in 2004. This means: it gives with the right hand and takes more with the left. Although the sale is financed before hand by an export credit, Indonesia is obliged to pay the ships in the end.
• Indonesia is a poor country, where tens of millions live below the poverty line. Indonesians are helped more when money is spend on education and health care, instead of on expensive warships .
• When Indonesia does not pay, the Dutch government will. Thus the Dutch tax payer is paying the risks of this arms trade.

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