-Caveat Lector-
From
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eid=50143
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BRITAIN HAS ARMED JUST ABOUT EVERYONE
May 28 2002
By Justine Smith And Alex Williams
BRITAIN is continuing to sell military hardware to suspect regimes and
countries ravaged by war, corruption and poverty, a Mirror investigation reveals.
A third of Britain's Government-approved arms exports go to nations where there is a
risk of provoking or prolonging conflict in defiance of EU codes of conduct.
Other countries which receive our arms are likely to pass them on to Britain's
strategic enemies, says the Campaign Against the Arms Trade.
To hide the extent of the scandal the Government shrouds the contents of arms
consignments in secrecy, invokes the Official Secrets Act to stop MPs asking
questions and hides behind confidentiality clauses.
It makes a mockery of New Labour's once vaunted claim to pursue an "ethical"
foreign policy. Saferworld campaign group said: "The whole industry is shrouded in
secrecy with manufacturers and politicians hiding behind phrases such as
commercial sensitivity and classified information."
The results of our probe follow John Pilger's disclosures in the Mirror yesterday that
in 2000 Britain armed India and Pakistan with �64million worth of defence
equipment.
The two nuclear powers are now teetering on the brink of all-out war. Yesterday,
despite rising tension, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said there were NO plans for an
arms embargo.
The denial came after Trade Secretary Patricia Hewitt was said to have signed an
order suspending all arms exports to India and Pakistan.
But a Trade Department spokesman said yesterday: "There is no ban because no
embargo is needed as the existing criteria for assessing applications are strict
enough."
Britain is the world's second biggest arms dealing nation after the US.
The Government approves arms exports worth an average �1billion a year.
But according to the Institute for Strategic Studies they were worth �3.5billion in
2000
alone.
Ethical codes are meant to bar exports to countries where there is a risk of weapons
being used for external aggression or internal repression. But Britain sells arms to at
least 20 countries in apparent breach of the rules.
Drawing on figures from the Government's Annual Report 2000 on Strategic Export
Controls the Campaign Against the Arms Trade discovered that recent sales include:
Machine guns worth �6.5million sold to Sierra Leone, �2million worth of fighter jet
parts for Indonesia, �1million worth of military vehicles for Angola and �1million
worth
of rifles and military vehicles for pariah state Zimbabwe.
Also listed were sales to the rogue states branded by President Bush as an "axis of
evil". Iran received �12.5million of defence/attack equipment.
Iraq and North Korea each received �250,000 of unspecified equipment.
CAAT spokesman Richard Bingley said: "Sales to North Korea and Iraq will be non-
offensive supplies such as de-mining equipment.
"But exports to Iran include decrypting technology and other equipment that could be
used in a conflict."
British arms could be used to assert territorial claims in India, Pakistan, Israel and
Lebanon.
In Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Zambia, they could be used
for internal repression.
Sales to Hong Kong, Jordan, Paraguay and Singapore could be diverted to rogue
recipients.
It is believed China and Turkey buy technology and weapons from the UK which are
then sold on to rogue states.
All arms export licences are approved by the Trade Department after consultation
with the Ministry of Defence, Foreign Office, and Department for International
Development.
But despite protests from campaigners the Government has never investigated the
extent of illicit cross border arms dealing involving weapons made under British
licence.
Mr Bingley said: "The 1996 Scott report identified Jordan and Egypt as recipients of
British arms and likely to pass them on to Iraq.
"Similarly, Britain has supplied arms to Pakistan while it was close to the Taliban and
unlikely to honour guides barring it from sharing British defence exports with
Afghanistan."
The UK imposes arms embargoes according to Government decisions and UN
Security Council resolutions.
Currently certain exports are prohibited to Iraq, Angola and Sierra Leone. There are
arms embargoes against Liberia, Rwanda and Somalia.
But Sam Barratt, Oxfam conflict officer, said: "In the past four years British arms
dealers have supplied arms to Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of
Congo, Burundi, Eritrea and Zimbabwe.
"Every flight carries an average of 35 tonnes. Laws going through parliament are
unlikely to clamp down on many of these deals and it will be business as usual for
the gunrunners." Further military hardware is sold to desperately poor countries.
Last year, the Government was condemned for approving a �28million BAe air traffic
control system to Tanzania - one of the world's 10 poorest nations.
Another �3billion contract for Hawk and Jiten jets was approved in South Africa - 10
times the amount spent there on tackling the Aids epidemic.
Former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook pledged in 1997 to introduce an "ethical
dimension" to foreign policy.
Labour MPs took the promise as a signal for a clampdown on unscrupulous arms
traders. But their hopes were soon dashed.
Powerful weapons companies, which provide thousands of jobs and generate
massive income for the Treasury, successfully argued that foreign competitors would
step in to any vacuum left by Britain.
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