The United Kingdom Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, and Foreign Minister, David Milliband, are to do nothing to bring to account the murderers of Scottish journalist Malcolm Rennie.

Mr Rennie was one of five British, Australian and New Zealand pressmen who were murdered by the Indonesian military in East Timor in 1975. In November last year an inquest by the New South Wales coroner, Dorelle Pinch, finally established that they were executed by Yunus Yosfia and Christoforus da Silva, members of the Indonesian special forces, on the orders of their commander, Maj. Gen. Benny Murdani. There were also assertions at the inquest that the British, Australian and New Zealand governments were subsequently complicit in the cover-up of the murders

The Celtic League wrote to the British Prime Minister in November urging action on the issue. However a reply from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) indicates that the government are still complicit in a cover-up.

The text of the letter from the British Foreign Office is set out below:

"Thank you for your letter of 18 November to the Prime Minister about the inquest into the deaths of Malcolm Rennie and Brian Peters. Your letter has been passed to us, as we are the department responsible for our relations with Indonesia and East Timor. I have been asked to reply.

We have noted the recent verdict of the inquest into the death of Brian Peters, which was the outcome of a judicial process run by the New South Wales Coroner's Court. The New South Wales Deputy Coroner said that she would refer the matter to the Australian Attorney-General. It will now be for the Australian Attorney-General to decide how to take this forward.

You also mentioned arms sales to Indonesia. The UK strictly complies with stringent EU and UN controls on arms exports. Each export licence application is assessed on a case by case basis against “The Code of Conduct”. Through Criterion 2 of the Code of Conduct we seek to establish whether there is a clear risk that the export might be used for internal repression. Export licence appiications are also assessed against European Community Regulation 1236/2005 which refers to the trade in certain goods which could be used for capital punishment, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

We would only grant an export licence for these goods if we were completely satisfied that the proposed export was not to be used in breach of any export controls. Applications for the export of such equipment would be also assessed in each case by the FCO's Human Rights, Democracy and Good Governance team."

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J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League

12/01/08

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