Jakarta Post, June 3 2005
BRUSSELS (AFP): Recent Dutch warship sales to
Indonesia violate the European Union's code of conduct on exporting
arms, Raul Romeva, the European Parliament's rapporteur on military
exports, said.
"These projects clearly violate the code of conduct on arms exports,
which prohibits arms supplies to unstable regions, countries in
conflict and countries in which respect for human rights is
disregarded," he said on Thursday.
According to a statement from the Greens group in parliament, of which
Romeva is a member, the Dutch government has authorized a national
shipyard to build two small corvette warships for the Indonesian navy.
The project comes on top of an earlier order for twocorvettes, and is
valued at up to 800 million euros (US$980 million). Another Dutch
company is also modernizing a military vessel previously delivered to
Indonesia.
"In the Aceh conflict in 2003 similar ships were used by the Indonesian
authorities during coastal assaults. That issue has not been solved yet
and Indonesia is meanwhile ravaged by internal conflicts," Romeva said.
Rebels in Aceh, Indonesia's westernmost province, have been fighting
for independence for three decades. The conflict has left more than
12,000 dead.
"It is shocking that so soon after the devastating tsunami an EU member
state would encourage Indonesia to spend hundreds of millions of euros
on new warships," Romeva said, referring to the Dec. 26 quake-triggered
disaster that killed nearly 300,000people across the Indian Ocean.
He said other EU states are also supplying military equipment to
Indonesia, which is a former Dutch colony.
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