Military of Indonesia

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Tentara Nasional Indonesia
Military manpower
Military age	18 years of age
Availability	males age 18-49: 60,543,028 (2005 est.)
Fit for military service	males age 18-49: 48,687,234 (2005 est.)
Reaching military age annually	males: 2,201,047 (2005 est.)
Military expenditures
Dollar figure	$1.3 billion (2004)
Percent of GDP	3% (2004)

Indonesia's armed forces (Indonesian: Tentara Nasional Indonesia, abbreviated as TNI, formerly Angkatan Bersenjata Republik Indonesia, abbreviated as ABRI) total about 300,000 members, including the Army (TNI-AD), Navy(including marines), and Air Force. The army is by far the largest, with about 233,000 active-duty personnel. Defence spending in the national budget is only 3% of GDP but is supplemented by revenue from many military-run businesses and foundations.

Air Chief Marshal Djoko Suyanto is the Commander-in-Chief.

The Indonesian National Police were for many years a branch of the armed forces. The police were formally separated from the military in April 1999, a process which was formally completed in July 2000. With 150,000 personnel, the police form a much smaller portion of the population than in most nations. The total number of national and local police in 2002 was approximately 270,000.

1 Political role of the military
2 Structure
3 Military equipment
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Political role of the military

During the Suharto era, the military was sometimes said to have a "dual function" (dwifungsi) in Indonesia; first, it would preserve the internal and external security of the country, preserving it as a unified nation, and second, it would ensure that government policy followed a path that the military leadership felt was wise.

This justified substantial military interference in politics. Long-time president Suharto was an army general, and was strongly supported by most of the military establishment. Traditionally a significant number of cabinet members had military backgrounds, while active duty and retired military personnel occupied a large number of seats in the parliament. Commanders of the various territorial commands played influential roles in the affairs of their respective regions.

Indonesia has not had a substantial conflict with its neighbours since the 1963-1965 confrontation with Malaysia, although competing South China Sea claims, where Indonesia has large natural gas reserves, concern the Indonesian government. Without a credible external threat in the region, the military's primary role in practice has been to assure internal security. Military leaders now say they wish to transform the military to a professional, external security force but acknowledge that the armed forces will continue to play an internal security role for some time.

In the post-Suharto period since 1998, civilian and military leaders have advocated removing the military from politics (for example, the military's representatives in parliament have been much reduced), but the military's political influence remains extensive. The TNI has been notorious since the alleged massacre of pro-communist ethnic Chinese in 1965-6 and the East Timor Crisis, which in both events, the TNI allegedly neglected and killed hundreds and thousands of people.

[edit] Structure

Army: est. strength 233,000
- Military Area Commands (KODAM), incorporating provincial and district commands each with a number of infantry battalions, sometimes a cavalry battalion, artillery, engineers.

The Military Balance lists 11; Indonesian wikipedia lists 12, and those are:

- Kodam Iskandar Muda overseeing Aceh province as part of the Aceh special autonomy law. Previously under the Kodam I/Bukit Barisan.
- Kodam I/Bukit Barisan, overseeing northern Sumatra provinces of North Sumatra, West Sumatra, Riau and Riau Islands.
- Kodam II/Sriwijaya, overseeing southern provinces on Sumatra island of Jambi, Bengkulu, Bangka and Belitung, South Sumatra and Lampung.
- Kodam Jaya (Jakata), overseeing Jakarta as the capital city of Indonesia.
- Kodam III/Siliwangi, overseeing West Java and Banten provinces.
- Kodam IV/Diponegoro, overseeing Central Java and Yogyakarta provinces.
- Kodam V/Brawijaya, overseeing East Java province.
- Kodam VI/Tanjungpura, overseeing all provinces on Kalimantan island (Borneo) of Central Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, South Kalimantan and West Kalimantan.
- Kodam VII/Wirabuana, overseeing all provinces on Sulawesi island of Gorontalo, Central Sulawesi, North Sulawesi, South Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi.
- Kodam IX/Udayana, overseeing provinces of Bali, East Nusa Tenggara and West Nusa Tenggara. Former Indonesian province of East Timor was also under the jurisdiction of Kodam IX/Udayana.
- Kodam XVI/Pattimura, overseeing Maluku and North Maluku provinces.
- Kodam XVII/Trikora, overseeing Irian Jaya Barat and Papua provinces.
- Special Forces Command (Kopassus), est 5,300 Three groups
- Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad), est 30,000
  - 1st Division, with 3rd, 13th, and 17th Airborne Brigades
  - 2nd Division, with 6th, 9th, 18th Airborne Brigades

Navy: 45,000, including 15,000 Marines and 1,000 Naval Aviation
Air Force: 24,000

Sources: International Institute for Strategic Studies, The Military Balance 2006 and http://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/KODAM

[edit] Military equipment

The Indonesian Navy purchased a number of ships of the former East German navy in the 1990s.

In 2005 the Indonesian Air Force experienced a logistics crisis, especially in regard to the F-16 Fighting Falcons and A-4 Skyhawks that account for almost 80% of the total number of Indonesian combat aircraft. The supply of spare parts for these aircraft from the United States was stopped due to an embargo imposed on Indonesia following a number of violations against civil and human rights in East Timor. This led to the grounding of most of the Western-made fighters.

In response to this embargo, in 2003 the Indonesian Air Force bought two Sukhoi Aerospace Su-27 Flankers and two Sukhoi Aerospace Su-30 Flanker-Ds. Along with the fighters came the armament, the AA-10 Alamo air-to-air missile. Also, by cooperating with local military equipment manufacturers such as Pindad and Hoverindo Nusa Persada, the Indonesian military is now capable of manufacturing its own military equipment, which mostly ranges in areas of small arms due to Indonesia's inability to master more advanced and larger weaponry such as armor, air and naval units.

Following the 2004 tsunami in Aceh the American government suspended the spare parts embargo for non-lethal equipment and military vehicles to support the humanitarian effort in the tsunami-devastated Indonesian regions of Aceh and Nias.

On 22 November 2005, the U.S. announced that military ties with Indonesia would be restored. The decision would end the six-year U.S. ban on arms sales. [1]

[edit] References

Bresnan, John. 1993. Managing Indonesia: the modern political economy. New York: Columbia University Press.
- Many topics, including the political role of the military at the height of Suharto's New Order.
Crouch, Harold. 1988. The army and politics in Indonesia. Ithaca:Cornell University Press.
- First published 1978. Now somewhat dated, but provides an influential overview of the role of the military in consolidating Suharto's power
Kingsbury, Damien. 2003. Power politics and the Indonesian military. London: RoutledgeCurzon.