Cook rebuked over jet sales to RI

Cook rebuked over jet sales to RI

LONDON (AFP): Foreign Secretary Robin Cook was accused
Wednesday of plunging British arms export policy into confusion
after allowing the sale of Hawk jets to Indonesia to go ahead.

Shadow Foreign Secretary Michael Howard said Cook should have
made a statement to parliament on the Labour government's stance
on arms sales, which would allowing MPs to question him.

Instead, the announcement had been "smuggled out" in a written
answer, leaving members to speculate about the meaning of the new
guidelines restricting weapons exports.

"We now have the worst of all worlds -- the minimum of clarity
and the maximum of confusion," Howard told the House of Commons.

In his announcement on Monday, Cook said export licenses would
not be issued where there was "a clearly identifiable risk" that
equipment might be used for internal repression or external
aggression.

But he confirmed there would be no block on the sale of Hawk
jets and armored cars to Indonesia.

The Foreign Office said it had found no evidence that Hawks
have been used against separatist forces in East Timor, which
integrated into Indonesia in 1975.

But ministers now suggest the decision to allow the sale to go
ahead should not be seen as a sign that new applications for
similar export licenses would be approved.

The Foreign Office said that "after legal advice it was
decided that it was unrealistic and impractical to revoke export
licenses granted before Labour's election victory", Howard
recalled.

"But they also said that the Hawk jet deal would be still seen
as acceptable under the new rules."

He urged Cook to "clear up the mess" that he said Cook's
statements had created.