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Indonesian air force to send team to China

JAKARTA: The Indonesian air force will send a team to China to check out the potential for maintenance and equipment supplies in the vacuum left by a US military equipment embargo, reports said on Monday.

"We will shortly send a team to China to realise the cooperation," the Indonesian Observer quoted air force chief Commodore Hanafie Asnan as saying.

"This is because our weapons upgrading system has been hampered by the United States," he added at a ceremony Sunday marking the air force's 54th anniversary.

Washington stopped military equipment sales to Jakarta in the wake of the wave of Indonesian army-backed militia violence that swept East Timor in September after its independence vote.

The ban has already forced the air force to ship a delivery of six British Hawk fighters to Indonesia in containers instead of being flown, because essential US radar and navigation equipment for the fighters was blocked by the US move.

Earlier this month the top US commander in the Pacific, Admiral Dennis Blair, said he saw no quick resumption of military cooperation with Indonesia until Washington saw an improvement in the armed forces' human rights record. "There's a long way to travel. We're looking for an across-the-board improvement," Blair told journalists during a visit to Jakarta.

Blair said the resumption of military links would also depend on a peaceful solution to the refugee problem in Indonesian-controlled West Timor.

UN officials say there are still about 120,000 East Timorese in camps across West Timor, many of which are reportedly controlled by the militia.ÑAFP