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Responsible arms sales?
The government claims that arms exports are 'managed responsibly'. Yet the UK routinely supplies regimes that have appalling human rights records and countries in conflict.
2011UK weapons used against pro-democracy protesters in the Middle East.
- The UK sold tear gas, crowd control armament and sniper rifles to Libya and Bahrain in 2010.
- Saudi Arabia sent troops and UK-made armoured vehicles to help crush democracy protests in Bahrain.
- The UK supplied armoured carriers used against protesters in Libya in 2011.
- As protesters were dying in Libya, David Cameron was promoting weapons sales in the Middle East in 2011.
UK arms licences to 2010 to: Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Libya, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, United Arab Emirates.
The UK is still arming repressive regimes in the Middle East and North Africa: see key data relating to the Arab Spring for the first quarter of 2011.
2009-10Saudi Arabian air-strikes in Yemen kill many civilians.
- Amnesty warns that UK-supplied planes may have been used in war crimes.¹
- The Foreign Office says it is "deeply concerned about the human rights situation in Saudi Arabia."²
- Saudi Arabia is the UK's biggest arms customer.
2009Sri Lanka's bloody civil war came to an end.
- The UK says the Sri Lankan government's final offensive against the Tamil Tigers "raised grave concerns for human rights."³
- It also said it could not guarantee UK arms were not used in the conflict.⁴
- In the previous four years the UK had approved £18 million of arms export licenses, including armoured vehicles, machine gun components and semiautomatic pistols. The UK continues to supply arms to Sri Lanka.
2008-9Israel attacks Gaza in Operation Cast Lead.
- 350 children were among those killed.
- A UN investigation found Israel had deliberately targeted civilians.⁵
- The UK government admitted that UK weapons were "almost certainly" used in the attacks.⁶
1999Indonesia's occupation of East Timor comes to an end.
- 200,000 people – a third of the population – were killed
- Between 1978 and 1999 the UK sold Indonesia weapons including Hawk aircraft, Scorpion tanks and Stormer armoured personnel carriers.
- In 1994 Robin Cook noted that "Hawk aircraft have been observed on bombing runs in East Timor in most years since 1984."
These are some of the UK's 'responsible' arms sales.
- Human rights in Palestine and other occupied Arab territories, 2009. United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict. HRC: 15 September 2009.
- Scrutiny of Arms Export Controls, 2010. House of Commons Business, Innovation and Skills,Defence, Foreign Affairs, and International Development Committees. HC: 30 March 2010.
- Scrutiny of Arms Export Controls, 2010. House of Commons Business, Innovation and Skills,Defence, Foreign Affairs, and International Development Committees. HC: 30 March 2010.
- Scrutiny of Arms Export Controls, 2010. House of Commons Business, Innovation and Skills,Defence, Foreign Affairs, and International Development Committees. HC: 30 March 2010.
- Yemen: Cracking down under pressure, 2010. Amnesty International Publications.
- Annual Report on Human Rights 2009, 2010. United Kingdom Foreign & Commonwealth Office. Crown: March 2010.
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