UK must honor arms contracts with RI

UK must honor arms contracts with RI

LONDON (AFP): Britain must honor contracts to supply Hawk jets and armored cars to Indonesia despite its record of human rights violation, or pay hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties, government sources said.

However, in line with Foreign Secretary Robin Cook's focus on human rights in his new foreign policy, criteria for such future sales will be considerably tighter than under the previous Conservative government, the sources said late Thursday.

A formal announcement on the contracts was to be made before parliament adjourns for the summer recess next Thursday.

The controversy concerns a 160-million-pound (US$256 million) British Aerospace deal to sell 16 Hawk fighter aircraft to Indonesia.

There has also been controversy over an Alvis contract to export 150 million pounds ($240 million) worth of Saracen light tanks, as well as the sale of water cannon for use in crowd control.

Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Menzies Campbell said, "Changing the rules will bring no comfort to the people of Indonesia whose legitimate democratic rights are being suppressed by their government or to those living in East Timor who have been systematically deprived of their freedom.

"A government which puts human rights at the heart of its foreign policy ought to be willing to take the consequences."

Government sources said ministers had been advised they would have to prove that the situation on the ground in Indonesia had changed materially since the previous government approved export licenses for the jets and armored cars if the contracts were to be blocked without financial penalty.