Indonesia: Arms Trade

(asked on 9th May 2019) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the government of Indonesia to ensure that British-supplied arms are not used for internal repression in West Papua.


Answered by
 Portrait
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This question was answered on 17th May 2019

The UK takes its arms export responsibilities seriously and operates one of the most robust arms export control regimes in the world. All export licence applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis against the Consolidated EU and National Arms Export Licensing Criteria, taking account of all relevant factors at the time of the application. We do not export equipment where we assess there is a clear risk that it might be used for internal repression.

We follow the situation in Papua closely. The Minister of State for Asia and the Pacific set out our concerns about violence in Papua and reports of alleged human rights violations by the security forces at a Westminster Hall debate on 8 May. The Minister raised concerns about the situation in Papua with the Indonesian Ambassador earlier this year. We will continue to press the Indonesian authorities to strengthen their human rights protections.

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