PROMOTING HUMAN RIGHTS, PEACE AND DEMOCRACY IN INDONESIA

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TAPOL demands action from British Government in response to the deployment of British-built Scorpion tanks in Aceh

23 June 2003

TAPOL has today written to the British Government expressing its dismay at the news that 36 British-built Scorpion tanks were sent to Aceh yesterday to take part in the ongoing military operations, which commenced on 19 May.

It states that assurances given over the years by Indonesia that military equipment exported to Indonesia would not be used for human rights violations have been proved worthless, as TAPOL has argued for years.

Already reports have been received of the use of British-built Hawk jets, most recently in Bireuen and North Aceh districts of Aceh last week, according to an AFP report on 17 June.

When Minister of State Mike O’Brien was in Indonesia earlier this month, he was told bluntly that the Indonesian armed forces did not acknowledge that such assurances had been given and would use the equipment as it saw fit. In the latest rebuff from Indonesia, the army chief-of-staff, General Ryamizard Ryacudu said today that it was for the Indonesians to decide how the Scorpion tanks would be used. ‘Who can prohibit us? We bought them with our people’s money,’ he said, according to Tempo.

Carmel Budiardjo of TAPOL said: ‘As the death toll in Aceh mounts by the day, it is clear that civilians are taking the brunt of the killings, whatever the Indonesian authorities claim. In whatever role British equipment is used, it will certainly result in casualties among the civilian population. These killings are of course the most advanced form of human rights violations.’

TAPOL made the following demands in its letter:

• We call on the British Government to protest strongly at the deployment of Scorpion tanks to Aceh because of their possible use in military operations and to call for the immediate withdraw of these tanks from Aceh, as well as the Hawk aircraft that have already been used in the operations.
• We also urge the British Government to call for a halt to the military operations now underway in Aceh and for renewed efforts to resolve the Aceh question by means of dialogue.
• We urge the British Government to impose an immediate moratorium on the supply of all military equipment to Indonesia and to end all relations with the Indonesian military.
• We urge the British Government to press the Indonesian authorities to allow unhindered access to Aceh for foreign journalists and humanitarian and human rights organisations to observe the situation there in particular with regard to the impact of the military operations on the civilian population.

ENDS

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