Human rights organization and former Indonesian Attorney General Marzuki Darusman have officially requested the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission to investigate allegations that three state-owned companies, PT Pindad, PT PAL, and PT Dirgantara Indonesia, continued selling weapons to the Myanmar military government following the 2021 coup.
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| Three Indonesian state-owned companies are accused of selling weapons to Myanmar's military government. (Source: bnn.network) |
However, on October 4th, the Indonesian state-owned defense industry corporation (DEFEND ID) affirmed that it would not export defense industry products to Myanmar after February 1st, 2021, in accordance with United Nations General Assembly Resolution 75/287, which prohibits the supply of weapons to Myanmar.
According to DEFEND ID, member companies PT Pindad, PT PAL, and PT Dirgantara Indonesia have never exported defense and security products to Myanmar following the UN Security Council resolution of February 1, 2021. The group stated: “Exports to Myanmar took place in 2016 in the form of standard sporting ammunition for Myanmar to participate in the ASEAN Army Rifle Shooting Competition (AARM) in 2016.”
Similarly, according to DEFEND ID, PT Dirgantara Indonesia and PT PAL also do not have any cooperation activities selling defense and security products to Myanmar.
Pindad's chairman, Abraham Mose, also denied the allegations from human rights groups, stating that the company has not had any sales transactions with Myanmar since 2016. Mose emphasized: “We don’t even have a Memorandum of Understanding (with Myanmar) since the 2016 agreement to ship ammunition to Myanmar for an official ASEAN competition.”
Previously, on October 2nd, a group of human rights organizations and former Indonesian Attorney General Marzuki Darusman formally requested the Indonesian National Human Rights Commission (KomnasHAM) to investigate allegations that three state-owned companies, PT Pindad, PT PAL, and PT Dirgantara Indonesia, sold weapons to the Myanmar military government. These three Indonesian state-owned companies are alleged to have advertised and sold "handguns, assault rifles, ammunition, combat vehicles, and other equipment to the Myanmar military over the past decade."
According to a public inquiry initiated by the organization “Justice for Myanmar,” these arms deals are believed to have continued after the coup that overthrew the civilian government led by the National League for Democracy (NLD) party in February 2021.
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