As the British government congratulates itself over suspending arms exports to Indonesia in the wake of the crisis in East Timor, 20,000 delegates, some from countries with dubious records on protecting human rights, have been getting out their cheque books this week at Britain's largest arms fair in Surrey and London's Docklands.
The Defence Systems Equipment International '99 show was organised over a two-day period by a private company and the sites were provided by the Ministry of Defence. In a sign of its treasured importance as the shop window of Britain's defence industry, the show was opened by the Defence Secretary, Lord Robertson.
If it had not been for the furore over the invitation extended to the Indonesian government (they decided subsequently not to attend), the delegates at the arms fair would probably have slipped in and out with relative ease. The combined pressure of a decision by the United States to suspend arms sales to Indonesia last week (quickly followed by Britain) and the unfortunate timing of the show ensured uncomfortable headlines, particularly for the Foreign Secretary, Mr Robin Cook.
It is, after all, Mr Cook's mission statement to "put human rights at the heart of our foreign policy" that will haunt him and the government throughout its term of office. Human rights campaigners ask how an ethical foreign policy can be squared with the sale of Britain's military expertise to some of the most morally repulsive regimes around the world.
The Conservatives, notably former defence minister the late Alan Clark, were enthusiastic, if extremely secretive, in bending the rules to supply arms to Iraq and Indonesia, but Mr Cook wanted to be different.
In June 1998, the foreign ministers of the EU adopted a Code of Conduct for Arms Exports, proposed by Britain and France. It was designed to ensure common rules governing arms exports with the precise aim that if one country denied an arms export, its decision would not be quietly undercut by another country exporting the same equipment.
However, a group of aid agencies, including Amnesty International, Oxfam and the British American Security Information Council, condemned the code, insisting it would not prevent one EU country from undercutting another and could even see the continued export of repressive military equipment to dubious regimes if they were registered for the protection of internal security forces.
Since the code was signed, human rights campaigners have questioned the sale of Hawk trainer aircraft to Indonesia and the export of a consignment of handgun silencers to Turkey. The Foreign Office said the silencer licence was approved in 1997, but the campaigners pointed out that while the silencers were probably used by Turkey's security forces, they had no obvious defence purpose. There have also been accusations that during Mr Cook's term in office the British-owned firm Heckler & Koch has sold machineguns to Indonesia.
In 1997 alone, Britain exported 23 armoured combat vehicles and four combat aircraft to Indonesia under export licences granted by the Conservatives, and valued at over £112 million. Labour granted another 64 licences between May 2nd, 1997 and May 10th, 1998 to send bombs, torpedoes, flame throwers and riot control agents to Indonesia.
Balancing British jobs with human rights abuses around the world is at the heart of the problem and human rights campaigners argue that human life often comes somewhere at the bottom of the list of considerations. Britain is the second largest exporter of arms, next to the US, and as manufacturing industry in Britain has dwindled, the multi-million pound revenue from arms sales has become more important.
Thanks to its military expertise, British Aerospace is Britain's biggest exporter of military equipment, with a company turnover of £6,464 million. It employs about 44,000 people at sites in Lancashire, Manchester and Swansea to build Tornado fighter planes, Hawk trainer aircraft, missiles and machines guns for export to Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and, until exports were suspended, Indonesia.
There is no doubt that Britain makes a lot of money from exporting its military capability. In the first annual report on Strategic Export Controls, compiled by the Ministry of Defence, the Foreign Office and the Department of Trade and Industry - the Whitehall agency chiefly responsible for issuing export licences - there is a table which records the amount of money spent by each country on military equipment during 1997.
Indonesia spent £112.49 million on combat vehicles and aircraft, Turkey spent £25.42 million on weapons including small arms, while Saudi Arabia, a favourite client of the Conservative government, spent £1,576.66 million on combat aircraft and small arms.
The Labour MP Ms Ann Clwyd argues that while the end use of military equipment cannot be successfully monitored, British-made equipment has been used against students in Jakarta. Suspending arms sales is not enough, she has said. "Quite simply, we should not be selling arms to countries that have bad human rights records."