Envoy summoned over use of riot control equipment

By Rikza Abdullah

LONDON (JP): The British Foreign Office has summoned Indonesian ambassador to Britain J.E. Habibie, questioning him on the recent use of British-made military equipment for controlling riots in Jakarta.

"I explained to the foreign office officials yesterday that the riot control equipment has been used properly by security personnel to overcome riots, in order to restore order," Habibie told Indonesian reporters here on Friday.

The Independent newspaper reported Friday that the riot control equipment used by Indonesian security personnel to overcome the recent rioting in Jakarta included Tactica armored personnel carriers made by Glover Webb of Hamble, part of the British defense network, and electric shock batons manufactured by a South African associate of SDMS Security Products of London.

Ambassador Habibie said that the foreign office officials were "actually very cordial and friendly". He said they summoned him when pressured by an opposition party, which alleged that the equipment had been used to suppress "peaceful protests" in Indonesia.

The riots caused the death of three people, injured many others and damaged several buildings and motor vehicles.

The riots were believed to have been triggered by the military-backed takeover of the Indonesian Democratic Party's headquarters in Central Jakarta on July 27. It was reported that supporters of Soerjadi, who was elected chairman in a government- sponsored congress last month, evicted supporters of the party's ousted chairwoman, Megawati Soekarnoputri.

The ambassador said the British officials could understand his explanations.

The Independent reported that the British foreign office had received assurances from the Indonesian government that the British-built Scorpion 90 tanks would not be used for internal repression.

Hawk

Habibie said the British officials had also asked for his comments about this week's acquittal by a Liverpool jury of four women who had damaged a Hawk jet fighter originally intended for delivery to Indonesia.

According to the ambassador, the women axed the fighter out of concern that the aircraft might be used to attack people in East Timor, a former Portuguese colony integrated into Indonesia in 1976.

The damage was estimated at 1.5 million pounds.

"I told the British officials that the women's case is an internal affair in which Indonesia does not want to interfere," he said.

"Furthermore, because the aircraft has not been delivered to Indonesia, it is still the responsibility of Britain."

Indonesia has ordered 24 Hawk fighters, eight of which were delivered recently. The remainder will be delivered within the next four years.

"I wondered how those women could have such a negative presumption on the possibility of using the fighters aircraft to attack East Timor," Habibie said, pointing out that the Indonesian government will never resort to such action.

"We hope the incident will not affect relations between Britain and Indonesia," he said.

He said bilateral relations with Britain have been improving. In commerce, for example, Britain's two-way trade increased by 24.43 percent to 1.43 billion pounds last year from 1.14 billion pounds in 1994, he said, quoting data from the Overseas Statistics of the United Kingdom.

During the first quarter of this year, the two-way trade rose 2.9 percent to 351.5 million pounds from 341.4 million in the same period of 1995.