Jubilee Debt Campaign UK : Indonesia : Indonesia: Drop arms debt!

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Indonesia: Drop arms debt!

Indonesia is still paying the UK millions in debt from arms loans made to the former dictator, General Suharto. It’s time the Indonesian people stopped paying for their own oppression.

Indonesia owes the UK £705 million, some £525 million of which is arms-related. Many of the loans Indonesia took from the UK in the 1980s and 1990s were to buy British weapons, such as tanks, water cannon, and aircraft. Suharto’s use of arms to oppress his own people, such as in East Timor, is notorious.

This year marks a decade since the people of Indonesia rose up and toppled the Suharto regime, on 21 May 1998. But they are still paying for the weapons this brutal dictator borrowed money for. Meanwhile more than half the population of Indonesia live on less than $2 a day.

TAKE ACTION:
Please email the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, and ask him to drop Indonesia's arms debt.

Your emails really do make a difference. To act now, please fill in the boxes below. Feel free to add to or change the text of the message. (Fields marked * are required.)

your message: *
Dear Alistair Darling, Indonesia is still paying the UK for debts accrued in the Suharto era, many of which are arms-related. Out of a total of 704.6 million pounds owed to the Export Credit Guarantee Department (ECGD), the ECGD estimates that approximately 75%, around 525 million pounds, is arms related. I am extremely concerned that the people of a country where more than half the population lives below the poverty line are still having to repay debts that resulted from an oppressive former regime, especially when the debts relate to arms and the regime used arms against its own people. As you know, ten years ago the Indonesian people pushed Suharto out of power, rejecting this oppressive dictator and his brutal regime. It is absurd that they should still be paying debts incurred under him. Jubilee Debt Campaign is calling for the cancellation of all illegitimate debts, where poor countries are still repaying unaffordable loans such as those made to oppressive or corrupt regimes, for useless projects that only benefited Western companies, or on grossly unfair terms. Indonesian arms debts clearly fall under this category and should be cancelled immediately. Please take action to cancel Indonesia’s arms debts now.

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