Indonesia pays $1.8m for grounded jet fighter in the U.S.

Indonesia pays $1.8m for grounded jet fighter in the U.S.

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government had paid more than US$1.8 million during the past
10 years to house a grounded jet fighter in the United States
after Washington placed a military embargo on Indonesia, a
legislator claimed.

Assembled in 1980, the Air Force's F-5 aircraft was purchased
from Israel in the early 1990s but had to be overhauled some time
later in a warehouse near Los Angeles, House of Representatives
lawmaker Djoko Susilo said on Wednesday.

Djoko, who has just returned from Washington, said Indonesia
had to pay $15,000 per month to rent the space. The procurement
and the decision to have the jet overhauled had been facilitated
by an Indonesian contractor, he said.

The repairs to the plane took a couple of years, during which
time the U.S. government enforced the military embargo. It meant
that the U.S. would not import or release any military hardware
to Indonesia, including the aircraft, he said.

The embargo was included in the U.S. Leahy amendment, which
was instituted after the 1991 St. Cruz incident in East Timor
when Indonesian troops shot to death several pro-independence
protesters.

While acknowledging that no one could have seen the embargo
coming, Djoko questioned the decision to overhaul the jet fighter
in the U.S. instead of in other closer countries, and blamed the
Indonesian contractor for the oversight.

"The government, whether it was the then ministry of defense
and security or the Air Force, should have held the contractor
accountable for the decision. We could have had it repaired in a
closer country instead of the U.S.

"We've been paying a lot for virtually nothing. The jet is
probably just pieces of rubble now, while we could have used the
money to build better dormitories or housing for our soldiers,"
he said.

Asked where the rent money came from, Djoko said it was likely
to have been allocated in the Ministry of Defense's budget.

Djoko, a National Mandate Party (PAN) legislator, sits on the
House Commission I on security and foreign affairs. He said he
would summon the defense minister and the Indonesian Military top
brass to clarify the matter.

Air Force spokesman First Marshall Sagoe Tambun said the rent
money did not come from the Air Force's budget, He said he
believed it was the Indonesian contractor that had paid the rent.

"I'm almost certain the rent money is not from our budget. We
have a very limited budget, so why would we spend it on warehouse
rental? Besides, the Ministry of Finance would have questioned us
about it. There must have been some kind of agreement between the
government and the contractor to anticipate such a situation, but
I'd have to dig it up first," he said.

Tambun, who did not remember the name of the contractor, said
there was almost nothing Jakarta could do about this because
Washington had refused to relax its policy. Indonesia would
likely have to spend more money to carry out tests on the jet
when it was eventually used because it had been grounded for
years, he said

He said the jet was repaired in the U.S. because the country
had sophisticated facilities and qualified service personnel. The
decision to repair it there was not the defense contractors', he
said.