London - The British Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, yesterday defied a parliamentary committee investigating British arms supplies to Africa, saying it was not entitled to pursue its investigations until the government's own inquiry was over.
In the latest episode of a bitter stand-off, Mr Cook wrote to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the House of Commons challenging his critics to question him rather than his officials over the controversy.
A left-wing MP, Ms Diane Abbott, described the tone of the letter as "gratuitous". Mr Cook's letter provoked testy exchanges between the committee and the Foreign Office chief, Sir John Kerr, who was grilled for the third time about possible official connivance in the supply of arms to Sierra Leone.
Mr Cook set up an inquiry in May under Sir Thomas Legg, a former civil servant, into allegations made by Sandline International, which was investigated by customs and excise for a possible breach of laws enforcing a United Nations arms embargo. Sandline was involved in the restoration to office in February of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah, ousted in a coup the previous May by a military junta.