UK refuses to suspend Egypt arms sales

Britain sold £16.4m worth of arms to Egypt in 2009, according to the Campaign Against the Arms Trade The British government refuses to say whether it would follow the example of Germany and France and suspend exports of arms and riot control equipment to Egypt. Instead, UK officials say decisions will be taken on a “case by case” basis in line with its own and EU guidelines. Officials “will assess whether the current circumstances in Egypt and the granting of a licence will contravene the criteria”, the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills said. The criteria says that arms will not be sold to countries or regions where they would exacerbate tensions and contribute to the abuse of human rights. However, Britain sold £16.4m worth of arms to Egypt in 2009, the last year for which figures are available, according to the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (Caat). 81 export licences were approved for a wide range of weapons systems components. EU countries have dramatically increased their arms sales to north African countries in recent years, from €372m to €2bn, according to the European Network Against Arms Trade. EU countries’ arms sales to Morocco amounted to €1.36bn in 2009 – €343m to Libya, €293m to Egypt, €275m to Algeria, and €52m to Tunisia. European arms exports to four of the five countries doubled between 2008 and 2009. The exception was Egypt, where sales increased but not to the same extent. “The EU arms export figures are shocking,” Kaye Stearman, a Caat member, said. “It is obvious that these weapons are bought primarily by north African governments to prop up their authoritarian governments. At a time when these same governments are experiencing popular protest, it is inevitable that some of the EU weapons will be used to crush internal opposition. “While some EU countries, such as France and Germany, have belatedly suspended arms exports to Egypt, this is not good enough. There should be an immediate arms embargo on the whole region.” Egypt Middle East Arms trade Richard Norton-Taylor guardian.co.uk

Posted by on February 8, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry