Subject: Britain suspends sale of Hawk jets to
Indonesia
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 1999 16:34:20 EDT
From: Joyo@aol.comBritain suspends sale of Hawk jets to Indonesia
LONDON, Sept 11 (AFP) - Britain is suspending the sale of Hawk aircraft to Indonesia
because of its "horror and disgust" at the bloodshed in East Timor, Foreign
Secretary Robin Cook announced Saturday,
The announcement followed concerns by the British government about reports that
Indonesia was flying the British-made fighters over East Timor, contrary to its assurances
to London that it would not.
It also came after disclosures that another shipment of nine ground-attack Hawk jets
was bound for Indonesia, having been granted export licenses by the former ruling
Conservative party.
Cook said no more of the ground attack jets would be sold and the existing contracts
would be suspended.
He said: "Britain will support an EU arms embargo and take national action to
suspend further arms exports."
London has been under heavy pressure to follow the United States' suspension of
military sales to Jakarta because of the carnage in East Timor following the territory's
August 30 landslide vote for independence.
Cook, speaking to reporters, said: "We have taken this action to make sure that we
bring home to the Indonesian government and particularly its army the horror and the
disgust of the international community at what's being done in East Timor."
He insisted that the Labour government, which took office in May 1997, was following
its much-vaunted ethical foreign policy.
"Nobody has ever found any military equipment licensed by this government that has
turned up in East Timor, nor will they," he added.
"Partly as a result of those tight guidelines, arms exports to Indonesia have
collapsed."
Cook said arms exports to Jakarta had been worth 450 million pounds (720 million
dollars) in the last year of the Tory government, but only one million pounds' worth of
new contracts had been signed last year.
The foreign secretary said he had just spoken with Britain's ambassador to the United
Nations, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, who was part of a UN delegation that visited the troubled
territory.
Greenstock had been "shocked" by what he saw there. "He told me that
Dili had been burned down, and tens of thousands of refugees are facing starvation in the
mountains," Cook said.
Cook said Britain was prepared to make its contribution to an international
peacekeeping force if Indonesia allowed one to go in.
"In the meantime, it is right that we should bring home to the Indonesian army the
horror of the whole world at the brutality they have visited on East Timor."
He said the anti-independence militias "cannot forever stifle the cry for freedom
in East Timor. The people of East Timor are going to be free, and the sooner both the
government and the army of Indonesia accept that, the less will be the damage to
Indonesia."
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