Shift burden of proof for arms sales: Letter
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Sirs: Ian Linden ("A prize shames the world into action", 14 October) describes some typical Foreign Office responses to demands for an arms embargo against Indonesia: "impracticable to monitor regularly" ... "no evidence that Hawk aircraft are used for repression" ... "Indonesian government assurances".
He concludes, rightly, that if the West continues to supply arms to the Indonesian aggressors, "the future for East Timor looks grim".
Indonesia's New Order regime came to power in the wake of the massacre of up to one million Indonesians in 1965-66. Its 1975 invasion of East Timor has led to an ongoing war in which 200,000 Timorese have died.
Why should the Foreign Office be allowed to judge Indonesia, or any other nation with a continued record of severe human-rights violations, "innocent until proven guilty" when selling them material that could be used to torture or kill? And why should the victims (and their pitifully few Western friends) have to prove what, thanks to Amnesty International and other disinterested observers, we already know all too well - that murderous regimes will continue to murder if we give them the means to do so?
It is time for British human-rights activists to insist that the burden of proof shift from the persecuted to the oppressors. We must stop playing the game according to the rules of the arms-sellers.
JULIA MILTON
Arnside, Cumbria
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments