The Indonesian government came under attack Friday over shortfalls in its defence budget which have been blamed for causing the crash of a Hercules transport plane that killed 101 people this week.
As the military mourned the loss of scores of soldiers, airmen and members of their families including 14 children in Wednesday’s crash, politicians accused the government of recklessly failing to maintain basic defence spending.
”The causes of the Hercules crash in East Java have yet to be revealed but this should not necessarily lead the government to ignore the fact that the defence budget is too small,” parliamentary defence commission deputy head Yusron Ihza Mahendra was quoted as saying by state-run Antara news agency.
The government granted the military 33,6-trillion rupiah ($3,26-billion) for its 2009 budget, only around a quarter of the 127 trillion it requested, he said.
The crash remains under investigation but Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono has repeatedly complained that the military’s budget is insufficient to ensure minimum standards of aircraft maintenance.
”Ideally, the maintenance cost should be 20 to 25% of the overall military budget but at present it’s below 10%,” he told reporters ahead of a meeting with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Wednesday.
Witnesses said they heard thunder-like explosions before the plane plunged out of the sky as it prepared to land at a military air base in East Java with 112 passengers and crew on board.
Two people were killed on the ground when the heavy transport aircraft smashed into their houses before crashing in a rice paddy and bursting into flames.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who is running against the president in elections in July, was in no doubt about the cause of the accident.
”This is the result of the inadequate budget portion for our (military) equipment,” he said.
The crash is the latest in a string of air disasters which have killed almost 300 people in Indonesia since 2007.
Another 24 military personnel were killed in April when their training aircraft crashed into a hangar at an air base in West Java.
An Indonesian Air Force Hercules overshot a runway in Papua on May 10, injuring one person on the ground and raising doubts about an ongoing project to upgrade the ageing aircraft with engine and frame improvements.
The European Union has banned all Indonesian airlines from its airspace due to safety concerns. — Sapa/AFP