Britain defends arms sales to Indonesia

Britain defends arms sales to Indonesia

LONDON (Reuter): The government on Wednesday defended the sale of British arms and crowd control equipment to Indonesia but said it had rejected more than a dozen export applications since 1993.

Under hostile questioning by opposition members of parliament (MPs), foreign office minister Jeremy Hanley said the government had sought assurances from Jakarta that the water cannon would not be used to break up peaceful demonstrations.

"Water cannon are an instrument of crowd control and are used for this in many Western countries (and) provide an alternative to the more lethal methods deployed in the past," Hanley said at question time.

"No one would condone excessive use of force, but in the face of violent rioting there is a legitimate requirement to protect life and property," Hanley added amid protests by opposition MPs.

He said all sovereign states enjoyed the right to self defense and argued that refusing to do business with Indonesia's government, which opposition parliamentarians accuse of human rights violations, would be counterproductive.

"Indonesia is the fourth most populous country in this world. It is an extremely important country with whom to do business. Isolating them would not help at all," he said.

Hanley said the government examined each application for an arms export license on its merits and had refused at least 11 since 1993. A further three had been partially rejected.