BRITAIN SELLS ARMS TO DICTATORS

LondonBangla: British activists are calling on the government to clarify whether London has been helping despotic Middle East regimes by selling them weapons they use to crush democratic movements.

This comes against the backdrop of criticism by social justice group Platform of British companies for working “hand in glove with [Hosni Mubarak] dictatorship” in Egypt. The European Union revealed in a recent report on controlling the export of military technology and equipment that Britain along with several other EU members have significantly increased their arms sales to several dictatorships in Middle East and North Africa over the past years. Following the revelations, anti-arms campaigners are asking the British government whether such weaponry are the very means of suppressing pro-democracy protestors in the region especially in Egypt and Tunisia.

The repressive regime of deposed Tunisian president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali killed hundreds of people in its onslaught on the country’s popular uprising before yielding to people’s democratic rights last month. That was a ripple, which quickly spread to Jordan, Yemen, Algeria and Egypt. Egyptian military has also killed hundreds of demonstrators who have been calling for an end to President Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year grip on power in the past two weeks.

Activists say Egypt’s crackdown on millionstrong protests has become possible by the weapons Mubarak regime has bought from the US, Britain, the Israeli regime and some European countries. As London Bangla went to press there were speculations that Hosni Mubarak would stand down as President of Egypt. This is while reports show Britain has been sending major arms shipments to Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria without providing full details about the quantity of weapons it has exported to the Middle East, their exact destination and how they will be used.

“The UK’s reports are the only way that the public can hold the government to its commitments not to provide weapons or such equipment to human rights violators,” said Oliver Sprague, Amnesty International’s UK arms program director. He said the report should contain “more explicit details” on the subject. “For example all we can see is that the UK sent £4.7 million worth of arms to Egypt, including parts for machine guns, grenade launchers, armoured vehicles and targeting and surveillance equipment,” he added.

This comes as the Campaign Against Arms Trade said the increase in the EU arms exports to the Middle East from €4.9 billion in 2009 to €9.6 billion in 2010 can only be explained by including repressive regimes in the region as the main customers of EU governments. “At a time when these governments are experiencing popular protests, it is inevitable that some of the EU weapons will be used to crush internal opposition,” a spokesman said calling for an “immediate arms embargo” on the region.