Britain supplies Indonesia with tools for repression

The British Government is selling crucial spare parts for armoured cars to Indonesia, despite conclusive evidence that the vehicles helped in attacks on Christians in the bloody Spice Islands conflict.

The British Government is selling crucial spare parts for armoured cars to Indonesia, despite conclusive evidence that the vehicles helped in attacks on Christians in the bloody Spice Islands conflict.

Ministers and senior officials in London have repeatedly denied British-made Saladin armoured cars have been used for repression, since The Independent reported that a Saladin had been filmed in an attack on a Christian community in July.

In a letter to MPs, the Foreign Office minister John Battle said: "The footage does not show a Saladin being used by Indonesian soldiers or extremists to oppress the Christians, as the report in The Independent suggests."

Certainly the images filmed by AP show the Saladin standing on the street, with no soldiers or Muslim fighters in the same shot. But Andi Jatmiko, the Associated Press cameraman, said: "The military were definitely helping the Muslim side attack the Christians and the Saladin was part of that." The attackers came under fire from Christian snipers in the city of Ambon on 15 July, despite the presence of Indonesian soldiers providing them with covering fire. The Saladin was positioned between the soldiers and the snipers, rotating its cannon in their direction.

"It wasn't firing," said Mr Jatmiko. "But because the Saladin was there, that made the Christian snipers scared so they didn't shoot again. It was helping [the Muslims]. If they'd been trying to break up the clash, the Saladin would have stayed. But they came for just five minutes to protect the soldiers and then left."

Since Robin Cook unveiled his "ethical foreign policy" in 1997, Britain has insisted it will never allow the export of equipment that might be used for internal repression. The Foreign Office admits export licences for spare parts have been issued for the 30-year-old Saladins.

Wilfred Wong, of the Christian campaign group Jubilee, said: "The British Government is bending over backwards to ignore the facts, and to support its policy of not imposing a new arms embargo on Indonesia. They are more interested in keeping the arms trade than in restoring peace and order to Maluku [the Spice Islands]."

After Mr Jatmiko's film was broadcast, he had death threats from anonymous callers. His film was the first irrefutable proof of what had been reported for months: that Indonesian soldiers were flouting their government and their commanders and taking sides in the 18-month Maluku conflict. But nobody from the British embassy contacted Mr Jatmiko.

A year ago, the European Union imposed an arms embargo on Indonesia during the military rampage that followed East Timor's vote for independence from Jakarta. The trade was resumed in January to"encourage" the new government of the democratically elected president, Abdurrahman Wahid.

Last month, three UN workers and 20 refugees were murdered by militiamen in West Timor while Indonesian soldiers watched. Richard Holbrooke, the American ambassador to the UN, told the Security Council the military was responsible for the outrage.