PROMOTING HUMAN RIGHTS, PEACE AND DEMOCRACY IN INDONESIA

111 Northwood Road, Thornton Heath, Surrey CR7 8HW, UK
Tel +44 (0)20 8771 2904 Fax +44 (0)20 8653 0322
Email tapol@gn.apc.org Website http://www.tapol.org

< PRESS RELEASES

UK Annual Report on Arms Exports

FAO Defence and Parliamentary correspondents

4 June 2004

The UK Government's annual report on Strategic Export Controls for 2003 is due to be published next Monday, 7 June [see note below].

A major country of concern is Indonesia, which over the years has been supplied with substantial quantities of UK military equipment despite its poor human rights record, especially in East Timor and more recently in Aceh, and its record of using imported equipment against civilians.

Last year, the annual report for 2002 revealed a twenty-fold increase in the value of licences for Indonesia from £2 million in 2000 to £41 million in 2002. The number of licences issued increased six-fold in the same period.

Last month, the House of Commons Quadripartite Committee on Strategic Export Controls accused the Government of failing to investigate claims that British equipment had been used in violation of human rights or for offensive purposes in Aceh and criticised it for its inadequate monitoring of the end use of equipment. It also said that "…without more legal or political backbone end-use assurances are not worth the paper they are written on" [see TAPO/CAAT press release, 1 June 2004 at http://tapol.gn.apc.org/pr040518.htm].

Attached is a factsheet on Arms to Indonesia produced by TAPOL and Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT).

TAPOL and CAAT spokespersons will be available for comment after the publication of the report on Monday. Please contact Nicholas Gilby (CAAT) on 07957 120469 or Paul Barber (TAPOL) on 01420 80153 or 0776 180 8095.

ENDS

Note: The report is due to be published on the Foreign Office website at 14:30 on Monday 7 June. See: http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1007029391422

Press archive

top