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.