CAATnews Oct/Nov 2005 - Cover Story

DSEI 2005 REPORT

The DSEi arms fair brings the global threads of the international arms trade together in one place: the companies that thrive upon it, and the governments that sustain and promote it. This September, Europe's largest arms fair rolled back into town. Mike Lewis and James O.Nions describe what happened next.

Wednesday 7 September
CAAT's week of action opens with DSEi's co-organiser, Reed Elsevier, already under public attack. After weeks spent building an international coalition of signatories to a public letter in the prestigious medical journal the Lancet - Elsevier's flagship publication - we hear that our letter has sparked the journal's editorial board to condemn their own publisher's involvement in the arms trade. This scathing critique is reported in national and international media, and forces Elsevier's chief publicity officer on to Radio 4's Today programme to defend the company. Several journalists subsequently report that Elsevier has stopped responding to media inquiries - even before the fair has started!

Thursday 8 September
Seven of the UK's leading comedians take to the stage of North London's Red Rose comedy club for our sold-out DSEi fundraiser, "Stand Up Against the Arms Fair".

Sunday 11 September
SCANDAL: The Ministry of Defence finally releases its list of invited buyers' delegations. CAAT was forewarned that China (with a human rights record that Tony Blair queried in Beijing the week before), Indonesia and Colombia had received invitations. The full list includes seven from the Foreign Office's own list of the world's top twenty human rights abusers.

11am: CAAT supporters from around the country meet at Toynbee Hall in east London for part one of CAAT's alternative conference. CAAT campaigners lead workshops on arms trade corruption, government/industry collusion, and DSEi itself. Banner-making and non-violent action training round off the afternoon.

Monday 12 September
CAAT launches its DSEi 2005 campaign at a press conference in Newham, where DSEi is to take place. Journalists coming straight from the arms fair's own media briefing at Newham's ExCel Centre hear a different story from CAAT campaigners, London Assembly member Darren Johnson, local community projects, and even a spontaneous delegation of students from the Royal Docks Community School.

6.30pm: People from all faiths, including Anglican and Catholic bishops, join East London churches in a moving candle-lit vigil at the ExCel Centre.

Tuesday 13 September
11am: Out of the blue, the arms fair organisers invite CAAT for an all-access tour, accompanied by a BBC London TV crew. Inside we're met by mocked-up battle control rooms, tanks, assault rifles and cruise missiles. DSEi's wilful denial of the nature and consequences of the event is astonishing. The spokesperson tells CAAT that he does not believe that any of the countries invited to shop at DSEi are involved in human rights abuse. We talk to one company that is openly advertising cluster bomb components in the official DSEi brochure, despite the organisers' assurances to the media that cluster bombs are "not here [at DSEi], not for sale and not even a topic of conversation".

1pm: CAAT's march moves off from East Ham central park. Present are hundreds of supporters and protestors from the UK and beyond, samba bands, pensioners and children. Carrying rainbow-coloured flags and banners, demonstrators and camera crews assemble near the ExCel Centre against a backdrop of police cordons and gun-metal grey warships.

5pm: Back at Toynbee Hall, part two of CAAT's DSEi conference is underway, with sessions on the arms trade's contribution to global refugee flows and human rights abuse around the world. A positive strategy session plans the next steps to stop DSEi returning in 2007.

Wednesday 14 September
8.30am: Commuters are greeted by 300 cyclists, forming a moving "Critical Mass" protest from Bank tube station to the ExCel Centre.

SCANDAL: DSEi's cluster bomb fiasco breaks in the Independent.

1.30pm: CAAT supporters bring the misery created by the arms trade home to Reed Elsevier's employees: a group of students and pensioners, swathed in bandages and blood, stage a "die-in" across the entrance of Elsevier's global headquarters in central London.

Various actions continue throughout the day. Roads to the venue are blocked, and protestors immobilise two of the DLR trains that are ferrying arms dealers to the fair by locking themselves to the roofs. Waiting arms company delegates, accustomed to the seclusion of international resorts and board rooms, seem astonished as their arms bazaar is besieged by samba bands and rebel clowns.

Thursday 15 September
SCANDAL: The reality of DSEi's "tight regulation" is unmasked by comedian Mark Thomas, who alleges to the Guardian that one company is openly (and illegally) promoting sales of torture equipment at the arms fair.

6pm: Arms dealers and repressive regimes are entertained by defence ministers at a Defence Manufacturers Association dinner at the Dorchester Hotel. A noisy protest disrupts the cosy tete-a-tete between the government and the corporate gun-runners.

DSEi 2005 was met with rising disgust and opposition from the public; from the press; from the local government; from the local community in whose midst this deadly trade arrives every two years; and even from a publication that is owned by the event's organisers. This range of opposition is unprecedented. It makes it possible that, with sustained effort in the coming months, we could - for the first time - stop DSEi from taking place in 2007. This would set an example for every other location on the growing international arms fair circuit. To do it, we will need your help.