Press release
Dutch Campaign Against Arms Trade and Indonesia House
Amsterdam 1 June 2005 - Indonesian and Dutch people will form a living
banner Thursday 2 June to protest arms exports to Indonesia. Also 3,000
signatures against the deliveries of naval vessels will be offered to
Dutch secretary of state for economic affairs, Karien van Gennip.
Late 2003 it became known that the Netherlands wanted to export two
corvettes to Indonesia. Two weeks ago defence minister Henk Kamp
announced that shipyard De Schelde in Flushing will build another two
warships for
Indonesia. The value of these orders will amount to between 700 and 800
million euros. Besides Thales Nederland is currently modernising
another Indonesian warship.
In 2003 similar naval vessels were used for coastal bombing during the
conflict in Aceh. Today, Indonesia is still ravaged by internal
conflicts. Arms exports to Indonesia are square to the criteria of the
European Union Code of Conduct on arms exports and therefore have to be
stopped. Moreover it is shocking that that Indonesia, so soon after the
devastating tsunami spends many hundreds of millions of euros for the
procurement of warships.
Date and place: Thursday 2 June, 13.45 hrs, Entrance Tweede
Kamer (Dutch
parliament), Plein, The Hague
Martin Broek: +31 (0)6 291 46 084
Erwanto: +31 (0)6 466 02 799
http://www.indonesia-house.org