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Wednesday March 1, 3:46 PM Oxfam slams loophole for British arms exporters to Uganda British charity Oxfam has criticised Britain for a legal loophole that allowed the sale of military equipment to Uganda which were used to violently quell opposition demonstrations. Oxfam said that a South African-based subsidiary company of British defence and aerospace giant BAE Systems had supplied armoured vehicles to the east African nation despite political concerns which led to London to suspend some aid last year. The Oxford-based group said that under the current British export control legislation, arms manufacturers that cannot sell directly to a foreign country can nevertheless do so legally by using offshore subsidiaries. "Loopholes in British arms laws have allowed the sale of military equipment to the Uganda government," Oxfam said in a report. "The lack of international controls on the arms trade is making a mockery of national arms laws," said Phil Bloomer, Oxfam's policy director. "This report shows that loopholes are allowing subsidiaries of British companies to make weapons sales that British based companies would not have had authorised." Bloomer said that proceeds accrued from sales by subsidiary companies, even if not directly sold by Britain, were beneficial to parent companies. According to the Oxfam report, Lands Systems OMC -- the South African subsidiary -- has sold Uganda at least 32 armoured vehicles since 2002, with the latest delivery of 12 vehicles brought in shortly before the February 23 elections won by incumbent President Yoweri Museveni. The vehicles were used to quell demonstrations in Kampala in November following the arrest of opposition leader Kizza Besigye after returning from exile in South Africa, the report said, adding that they were also used by the army to patrol an opposition rally in which at least two people were killed and several injured. Security officials also used the vehicles to disperse opposition supporters four days before polling day, which also resulted in injuries, two of them serious. "While the British government condemns human rights abuses in Uganda, a subsidiary of a British company sells weapons. The result is armoured vehicles being used against civilians and the proceeds from these sales lining pockets of British companies," Bloomer added. "Whilst there is no suggestion that British companies have opted to pursue offshore subsidiaries as a deliberate attempt to bypass UK export laws, the consequence of this lack of control is that subsidiaries can and have exported weapons to countries that would have not received export licences from the UK," the report said. The group called for several measures to clamp down on the military sales: -- making firms in which British companies have majority shareholding subjected to the country's export controls -- instituting multilateral legally-binding measures such as the Arms Trade Treaty -- increasing transparency in trade. "The proposed international Arms Trade Treaty would close these loopholes by ensuring global standards exist -- stopping sales to regimes that abuse human rights," Oxfam said in the report. The group noted that while Britain has lobbied for an international Arms Trade Treaty it has failed to show leadership at the United Nations to make it a reality, nor has it tightened loopholes to stop the sale of arms to regimes that violate human rights. |
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