Int'l rights groups demand arms embargo against Indonesia
Int'l rights groups demand arms embargo against Indonesia
Reuters, London
A group of 90 human rights organizations, antiarms trade and antiwar groups has demanded an international embargo against selling arms to Indonesia, a human rights group said on Monday.
The British-based Indonesia Human Rights Campaign said the appeal, which includes groups from Europe, North America, Asia and Australia, was a response to Indonesia's military campaigns in Aceh and Papua. The group goes by the name of TAPOL, which its website says means "political prisoner" in Indonesian.
"Many of the groups are especially concerned that weaponry from their countries is being used against civilians in Aceh," TAPOL said in a statement.
TAPOL said Indonesian military equipment included British Scorpion tanks and Hawk jets, U.S. F-16 fighter planes, German warships, and armored vehicles from France and Germany.
The groups said in a statement they urged governments to embargo the supply of military, security and police equipment to Indonesia and to suspend all military cooperation with the world's most populous Muslim country.
On Sunday Indonesia's military sent three dozen British-made Scorpion tanks to rebellious Aceh to guard roads in a move being closely watched by London, which has sold such weaponry on condition it not be used offensively.
Indonesia is in the middle of its biggest ever offensive to crush the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which has sought independence since 1976, after last-ditch peace talks collapsed in May.
The list of organizations involved in the campaign for a military embargo includes Britain's Campaign Against Arms Trade, the Australia West Papua Association and Amsterdam-based Indonesia House.
"We have been warning the British government for years in fact about supplying military equipment to Indonesia," TAPOL director Carmel Budiardjo said, reacting to Sunday's deployment of British tanks in Aceh.
"This is to us a complete vindication of what we have been warning the British government about. These tanks will be used in military operations and of course they will cause human rights violations by causing deaths among the civilian population."