The British Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook, has provoked a diplomatic row with the government of Indonesia over human rights and arms sales on the second day of his visit to South-East Asia. The row began ahead of Mr Cook's meeting today with President Suharto, and arose from the British government's new guidelines for arms exports aimed at preventing the sale of military equipment to foreign governments accused of human rights abuses.
The Indonesian government has been severely criticised for its human rights record against the people of East Timor. In a politically symbolic move, his first act on arriving in Jakarta was to telephone Bishop Carlos Belo, the leading campaigner in the annexed former Portuguese colony of East Timor. Mr Cook told Bishop Belo he wanted to "take the opportunity of making the point of speaking to you".
Also yesterday Indonesia declined an offer by President Nelson Mandela of South Africa to host talks on the Timor issue. The Indonesian Foreign Minister, Mr Ali Alatas, said Indonesia preferred Austria as the venue of UN sponsored talks with East Timorese groups. On Monday Indonesia dismissed a proposal from an East Timor rebel leader to have a similar relationship with Jakarta as the US shares with Puerto Rico.
When the Labour government came into office in May it made clear that, while it could not revoke the arms export licences granted by the Tory government, it would seek to curb future arms sales. In response Mr Alatas warned that his government would look elsewhere.
Earlier at a press conference in Kuala Lumpur, Mr Cook announced a new relationship between the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) and MI6 in the fight against international drug trafficking. In his speech to the Institute for Diplomacy and Foreign Relations, Mr Cook warned the government of Burma that both organisations would intensify their efforts "to fight this scourge".
"This is not simply a restatement of old policy - we will refocus all resources to make this a top priority. The failure of the regime in Burma to address this issue - indeed their apparent willingness to abet and profit from the drugs trade - deserves the strongest condemnation," Mr Cook said.
Mr Cook said he did not believe that military forces would be used in the offensive against international drug trafficking. Instead he called for international co-operation, which would be "vital" to prevent the spread of drugs across national frontiers.
He also called for the countries of South-East Asia to "work together" on human rights.
David Shanks adds:
In Indonesia's most easterly but disputed province of Irian Jaya - where Western pursuit of copper and gold threatens the remnants of Stone Age man - a tribe has been ordered to hand over "all sharp implements". Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights is to send a fact-finding team to investigate recent disturbances that led to the deaths of four indigenous people in the area of Timika, a boom town serving the vast US-owned Freeport mine.
The Irish solidarity group, West Papua Action, put the number of killings in recent days by Indonesian troops at six.
Local church leaders, warning of serious conflict, have rejected Freeport plans to make disbursements from a company fund set up to help tribal communities affected by mining, saying the plans ignore tribes most threatened.