British export of jets to Indonesia to go ahead

British export of jets to Indonesia to go ahead

LONDON (AFP): The British export of fighter jets to Indonesia is to go ahead, it was reported yesterday, despite a warning from London that arms supplies will be cut if Jakarta does not improve its human rights record.

Sixteen British Aerospace Hawk fighter planes will be exported in a 160 million pound (US$250 million) deal in the face of persistent allegations that Indonesia uses such jets against opposition forces in East Timor, the Financial Times said.

"There is no evidence that the aircraft are being used in East Timor," a senior British government member was quoted as saying. "Our intelligence on that is very clear."

The FT also reported that the government had been warned there were "formidable obstacles" in the way of revoking the British Aerospace contract to supply the planes.

The news, if confirmed, undermines Foreign Secretary Robin Cook's warning to Indonesia on Thursday to improve its record on human rights if it wishes British arms exports to continue.

In a keynote speech reiterating his commitment to place human rights at the forefront of foreign policy -- to which end an arms trade review is underway -- Cook said: "There will be changes with respect to a number of countries of which that (Indonesia) is one.

"Indonesia is a large purchaser of equipment and weapons from Britain and like other countries it will be included in our arms review, and criteria that we adopt will be applied equitably.

"Britain will refuse to supply the equipment and weapons with which regimes deny the demands of their peoples for human rights."

Asked specifically about the Hawk jets, Cook said: "If we have evidence that any particular weapons system -- of which that is one -- is being used for internal repression, we will not give an export license for it."

His resolve to use arms sales as leverage to improve rights was less forceful than in his first policy address after Labour's landslide election victory in May, when he hinted at firmer and swifter action.

This time, he tempered it with a caveat against the "error of imagining that we have done our bit for human rights by refusing to have anything to do with those countries with an unsatisfactory performance on human rights.

"This may provide us with clean hands," he said. "But it is unlikely to provide their people with better rights. Some regimes, such as Iraq, may simply be beyond rational persuasion."

In remarks to reporters after his speech, Cook added: "It is in our interests that we reach an outcome in which we continue to be a leading arms exporter without conflicting with other very important aspects of the British nation.