EXPORT OF ARMS TO INDONESIA

As this motion is using historical data, we may not have the record of the original ordering, in which case signatories are listed alphabetically.

This is an amendment to an existing motion

This motion was originally tabled by Alan Simpson on 14 February 1996. This is amendment number 1.

View details of the original motion

Suggested amendment

leave out from `House' to end and add `notes the considerable investment over the last 20 years by the government of Indonesia in East Timor; notes further that after the incident at Dili a Commission of Enquiry was set up by the Government of Indonesia after which a number of soldiers were disciplined and a Standing Commission for Human Rights set up; notes the continuing use of mortality figures in East Timor that are wholly unsubstantiated; notes further that the contract to supply Hawk Trainers was signed by the last Labour Government only three years after the occupation of East Timor, following its abandonment by Portugal; further notes that the performance of the Hawk jet contract complies fully with international law and that no evidence, despite constant accusations, has ever been produced that these aircraft are being used for internal repression; notes further that many thousands of British jobs are involved in trade with Indonesia; further notes the substantial and successful efforts made by the government of Indonesia to improve its record on human rig hts; and deplores the constant unjustified denigration and misrepresentation of the actions of a friendly country which ill serves the people of both Indonesia and Great Britain alike.'.

Original motion text

That this House deplores the continuing oppression of the people of East Timor by the Government of Indonesia; recalls that one-third of the people of East Timor have been killed in the twenty years since its illegal annexation; is appalled at the fact that the United Kingdom Government has sanctioned the sale of British Aerospace Hawk aircraft to the Indonesian Government despite the fact that such aircraft have been used to attack the people of East Timor; and demands that the delivery of Hawk jets and other weapons to Indonesia be cancelled until a full enquiry on the lines of that conducted by Lord Justice Scott into the Arms to Iraq affair has investigated the role of the British Government in allowing such sales.

The first 6 Members who have signed to support the motion are the sponsors. The primary sponsor is generally the person who tabled the motion and has responsibility for it. The date shown is when the Member signed the motion.