British Prime Minister calls for arms sales to Indonesia

Britain wants to sell "some of the best defence equipment in the world" to Indonesia, Prime Minister David Cameron said in an interview published Wednesday. Cameron, who was scheduled to arrive in Jakarta for a two-day visit, told Indonesia's leading Kompas newspaper that arms sales were high on the agenda.
"Britain makes some of the best defence equipment in the world and it is right that it is available to Indonesia, under the very same criteria that we apply to all our partners around the world," he was quoted as saying. Cameron, who planned to meet President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Wednesday, said executives from some leading British defence firms were accompanying him during his visit.
The Indonesian military was accused of human rights violations during the three-decade, autocratic rule of president Suharto but has undergone a series of reforms since his ouster in 1998. But Human Rights Watch said in a 2012 report that while Indonesia has made great strides in becoming a stable democratic country with a strong civil society and independent media, impunity for members of security forces remains a serious concern. In 1999 the British government banned sales of defence equipment to Jakarta, following accusations that British-made Hawk fighters were used in counterinsurgency attacks in East Timor - then an Indonesian province - Aceh and Papua.
Cameron, who was on a five-day trip to Asia, told the newspaper that Indonesia had changed. "We believe that democratic and responsible countries like Indonesia have a right to defend themselves, and to buy the equipment needed to do so. Yudhoyono's spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said Cameron would be accompanied by 30 business delegates during the visit.
The two leaders would discuss "concrete cooperation in various economic areas," he said. Indonesia, the world's fourth most populous country, has launched an ambitious plan to modernise its underequipped military and build a defence industry. The government has allocated a defence budget of 156 trillion rupiah (17 billion dollars) for the 2011-14 period, allowing it buy hardware such as modern fighter aircraft, submarines and tanks. The United States in 2005 lifted a six-year arms embargo imposed on Indonesia over violence carried out by soldiers and pro-Jakarta militias after East Timor's vote on independence from Indonesia.