Indonesian Forces Training

EDM number 652 in 1996-97, proposed by Ann Clwyd on 12/03/1997.

That this House is appalled that the Department of War Studies at King's College, London, has agreed to teach 10 Indonesian officers in the coming academic year and in addition that the Centre for Defence Studies at King's College is planning to train members of Indonesia's armed forces, including members of the Special Forces; notes that the Indonesian armed forces have an atrocious human rights record, fully demonstrated in the Santa Cruz cemetry, East Timor, in November 1991, when troops fired on peaceful protesters at a funeral, killing 270; further notes that the UN Special Rapporteur on Indonesia reported that the Indonesian police and military commit human rights violations with virtual impunity, the majority of cases are not systematically investigated and the perpetrators are rarely brought to justice; further notes that the Ministry of Defence currently subsidises the CDS by ú120,000 a year, that the British Government's training programme for the Indonesian police force has been shown by the National Audit Office to be an abject failure and that Indonesian police officers trained under the British aid programme went on to commit human right abuses, including torture, on their return; congratulates the students and staff who have voiced their concerns over this project; and calls on King's College to reconsider its position, since it would bring those involved into serious disrepute.

This motion has been signed by a total of 42 MPs.