HM GOVERNMENT AND THE UN INVESTIGATION OF THE KILLING OF BRITISH AND OTHER NEWSMEN IN EAST TIMOR

Early day motion 425, tabled 18 December 2002 by Lord Foster of Bath (Liberal Democrat). Signed by 163 members.

That this House notes that in May the United Nations told relatives of British citizen Malcolm Rennie that Indonesia's legal authorities had failed, repeatedly, to allow the United Nations to interview eight persons in Indonesia in connection with the death of British citizens Mr Rennie and Brian Peters, and three other television newsmen killed with them at Balibo in East Timor in October 1975; further notes that papers released by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 2002 show that on 28th October 1975 the British Embassy in Jakarta won Foreign Office backing for its view that no British approach should be made to the Indonesian authorities on the British citizens' case; and urges Her Majesty's Government, henceforward, to press the Indonesian authorities to extend full co-operation both in that case and in that of Sander Thoenes, the Financial Times newsman killed in East Timor in September 1999.

Signatures by party: Labour 84, Liberal Democrat 41, Conservative 19, Labour/Co-operative 7, DUP 4, Plaid Cymru 3, Scottish National Party 3, UUP 2.