RITISH-MADE

Why Cook's 'ethical' policy is such a farce
armoured cars were recently filmed being used to support Islamic militants in their attack on Christians in the Moluccas islands of eastern Indonesia. Television footage showed a Saladin armoured car giving cover for a group of Indonesian troops and Islamic militants as they attacked a Christian area in Ambon.
Last year the Jubilee Campaign urged the British Foreign Office to invoke an arms embargo against Indonesia for the government's repeated failure to do more to restore order in the Moluccas. Until now the British government has refused to have arms sanctions against Indonesia despite the recent sharp escalation in violence there. Moluccan Christians have reached such a state of desperation that they are beginning to use the word "genocide" to describe the massive and repeated attacks by Islamic militants and Indonesian troops against them.
Although the Saladin armoured cars were sold to the Indonesian government many years ago, their use against innocent civilians demonstrates the ease with which British weapons can be used to commit atrocities. It also strengthens the argument for an immediate British and European Union arms embargo against Indonesia at least until the Indonesian government does much more to restore order in the Moluccas. Since the sectarian violence began in January 1999, more than 450 churches have been destroyed and about 2500 Christians killed. Thousands of Muslims have also died. A massive humanitarian disaster has been created with over 400,000 internally displaced people.
Urgent crises like the Moluccas conflict pose a significant test of the Labour government's much talked about ethical foreign policy. While this government has raised concerns about the Moluccas with the Indonesian authorities, they ought to be backing up their human rights rhetoric with strong measures such as an arins embargo.
John Battle, the Foreign Office minister who covers Indonesia, has stated in Parliamentary correspondence regarding the Moluccas that "...Indonesia is on notice that if we see a repetition of the type of state violence perpetrated in East Timor, we will move swiftly within the EU to reimpose restrictive measures." This statement is certainly welcome; however, the situation in the Moluccas has already become as bad as East Timor if not worse but the British government has yet to impose an arms embargo on Indonesia and to lobby the European Union to do likewise. Moluccan church leaders report that there are about 7000 Islamic militants who have arrived in the Moluccas from other parts of Indonesia to wage a Jihad or so-called
Holy War against the Christians there. The Jihad fighters had announced their intentions several weeks before but the Indonesian authorities did little to stop them.
According to the Biitish government's recent annual report on arms exports Indonesia and Saudi Arabia are two of the biggest buyers of British arms, accounting for 25 per cent of British arms sales. China, India and Pakistan also receive British military equipment. These are all countries where widespread persecution of Christians exists. In Saudi Arabia, churches are not even allowed to operate and many Christians have been detained and tortured simply for engaging in worship. At the moment the Jubilee Campaign is calling on the Saudi authorities to reveal the whereabouts of George Thomas, a Catholic who has been detained and beaten up by the Saudi police for his religious activities.
In the view of the Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs spokesman, Menzies Campbell, arms exports provide the most searching test of ethics in foreign policy. Another major test of ethical foreign policy is
the government's willingness to impose economic sanctions against major human rights abusers. There have been widespread calls by human rights activists from Burma for a ban on all new investment by British companies in that country. Such measures have long been taken by the U.S government. To their credit, the British Foreign Office has publicly called on Premier Oil, the largest U.K investor in Burma, to stop their investments but this advice has simply been ignored and strengthens our argument that only a ban will end British investment in that country. By the Foreign Office's own admission, Burma has one of the most appalling human rights records in the world. The Karen, Karenni and Shan ethnic minorities in Burma are currently facing genocide with more than 30,000 Karen killed as a direct or indirect result of Burmese military action since 1992. Over 300,000 Karen are internally displaced, many of them hiding in the jungle from the Burmese army who normally kill them on sight. 'There are few places in the
world where so many displaced people are hunted and slaughtered like animals but the British government has yet to acknowledge the genocide or to ban UK investment in Burma.
THE LABOUR government's response to grave human rights situations provides another major test of their ethical foreign policy. It is unfair to say that the British government has done nothing to address the situations in Burma and the Moluccas: but they could certainly do a lot more.
The Foreign Office has also been reluctant to speak out strongly for the persecuted Christians of Egypt. At least 20 Egyptian Christians were massacred by Muslims on January 2, 2000. Around 18 Christians were killed in the village of El-Kosheh and 2 in Deir El-Nagame,esh. After the massacre, over 30 Copts (Egypt's Christians are also referred to as Copts) were detained along with several Muslims in a deceitful attempt to put some blame on the Christians for the violence. ElKosheh is the same village where in August and September 1998, 1200 or more Christians were detained by the police.
The British government has been reluctant to exert much pressure on the Egyptian government over their treatment of Christians. The Foreign Office has also been unwilling to acknowledge that many Christians are regularly persecuted in Egypt because of their faith. Despite repeated requests, Peter Hain, the Foreign Office Minister who covers Egypt, has even refused to meet British Coptic leaders. Such an attitude is grossly negligent, given that in the last two years the Copts have faced the worst mass detention and slaughter of their people in modern times.
To their credit, the Labour government acted swiftly to try and stop the atrocities by Serbs against the Muslim Kosovans. Though we are not calling for the kind of military intervention seen in Kosovo, this government ought to at least demonstrate a similar sense of ency regarding the ecution of Christians in places like the Moluccas, Egypt and Sudan. In Sudan about two million people have died during the 17-year civil war there which has mainly been caused by the fundamen talist government's insis tence on subjecting the Christians and other non Muslims to Islamic law.
Sudanese Christians are frequently bombed, enslaved and forced to convert to Islam. Some Sudanese church leaders have bitterly made comparisons between the West's willingness to help the persecuted Muslims of former Yugoslavia and lack of action to end the atrocities in Sudan.
The Labour record on human rights in foreign policy has been generally better than that of the previous Tory government. In my view, the Minister, John Battle, must be one of the most open and accessible Ministers on human rights issues which the Foreign Office has ever bad. Without him, Labour's ethical foreign policy would probably be even weaker. However, unlike the Tories, the Labour government has made a much publicised claim to possess an ethical foreign policy and should be held to the high standards which they purport to have. Using the three tests of: 1) the government's arms exports record, 2) willingness to impose tough sanctions on gross human rights abusers and 3) willingness to respond urgently to serious and widespread human rights violations, this government still has a long way to go before they can truly be said to have an ethical foreign policy.
Wilfred Wong is Researcher and Parliamentary Officer for the Jubilee Campaign