Category: arms trade

Arms Trade news


Latest CAAT News on arms trade issues

February 2024

UPDATE: 22 February 2024. UK government may suspend arms licenses to Israel if it goes ahead with the attack on Rafah.

We have mentioned the arms trade on many occasions before believing that the UK’s continued role in supplying weapons to a wide range of regimes with little concern for the consequences is shameful and immoral. As a key member of the UN, to be one of the world’s biggest seller of arms is not something to be proud of. Weapons kill, and are used to oppress minorities or to exert power over them. The biggest sufferers – as we are seeing in Gaza right now – are usually women and children.

Gaza

The lead article in the Campaign Against the Arms Trade newsletter (No 268, Spring 2024) is the situation in Gaza where an estimated 29,000 have now died at the time of writing. Israel has damaged or destroyed some 70% of Gaza’s residential buildings and has ‘systematically’ degraded healthcare facilities and food production systems. Around 85% of the population has been displaced. Meanwhile they say “senior Israeli politicians and military figures have openly talked of expelling the population of Gaza to Egypt, and have used blatantly genocidal language”. (p3)

The US is the major suppliers of weapons to Israel and the UK is a minor supplier by comparison although we do manufacture 15% of F-35 aircraft used by the Israelis.

Weapons

The UK government wants to champion arms companies it reports as “positive ambassadors for the UK, in the face of investment threats“. The focus was announced by Grant Shapps MP as part of a strategy to increase arms exports. They also appear to be encouraging Saudi Arabia to join a defence partnership to build the next generation of fighter jets. The record of Saudi in terms of human rights hardly needs rehearsing with executions, repression, use of torture and the outcry following the murder of Khashoggi. Japan, another possible partner, is said to be opposed to this. It seems the commercial priorities are supreme over any considerations of human rights. (p5)

Annual Report

CAAT has published its second annual report for 2022. It shows a big surge in export orders to £8.5bn. It shows that the single largest customer is Qatar which has a particularly poor human rights record. The report discusses some of the key countries of concern to whom we sell weapons and these include, UAE, Turkey, Saudi and Israel. The report is hard to summarise and does need to be read to gain an understanding of how the trade works and the UK’s role in it.

Telford Arms Fair

This fair used to be in Malvern and campaigners have tried to get it stopped now that it has moved to Telford. The fair is called the Specialist Defence and Security Convention UK. The title gives the impression of a benign intent with the words ‘security’ and ‘defence’. However, the weapons on display and the countries who purchase them are often used to maintain colonial power or to oppress in some way. They also kill. It has to be questioned whether such an exhibition is appropriate for the UK to be promoting and playing such an active part in. (p12). An article in the Shropshire Star newspaper had the following quote “Residents, faith groups, veterans, trade unions, environmental and peace organisations made very clear the arms fair is no more welcome in Telford than in Malvern, and we’ll be continuing to engage with the council and the Telford International Centre to ensure we don’t see a weapons fair here again.” There does not appear to be any policy statement on the details available about any moral or human rights stance by themselves or the exhibitors.

Saudi and MBS

The red carpet was almost certainly to be rolled out for Mohammed bin Salman’s planned visit to the UK. At his last visit he had lunch with the Queen and dinner with Prince William and Kate Middleton. The main purpose of course was the sale of weapons and in particular, Typhoon aircraft. A deal was in place CAAT reports but the murder of Khashoggi, CAAT’s own legal case and the war in Yemen delayed signing.

A number of human rights organisations were planning an appropriate welcome and included Amnesty, Reprieve, CAAT, and a Saudi human rights organisation Alqst. A problem for the UK is that the Eurofighter is a joint programme and some of the partners – Italy, Germany and Spain – need to approve any exports. Germany opposed the deal especially after the Khashoggi murder. There has been a lot of lobbying and the German position may have softened. It is possible the visit will happen therefore.

The overall picture is that the UK sees the sale of weapons to be a key enterprise and Grant Shapps’ statement about arms companies being ‘ambassadors’ sums up the position nicely. It would be hard to argue that the government has any kind of ethical position. Countries with atrocious human rights are courted for sales often using members of the Royal Family as ‘ambassadors’ as well.

No human rights policy

It is also interesting to note that there does not seem to be anywhere on the Ministry of Defence’s website, any reference at all to human rights concerns. The nearest policy statement appears to be the following:

‘We will engage proactively and persistently around the globe, working with our allies, to support our foreign policy goals, promote our interests and keep our competitors at bay, including in the grey zone.

‘Defence will contribute to our prosperity through creating a secure environment for business, supporting British business and jobs, and through supporting technology innovation in the economy more widely, investing in Research and Development (R&D) and new technologies to counter the threat‘.

The UK’s prosperity seems to be the one and only concern. An ethical foreign policy seems a very long time ago.

Sources: CAAT news, Shropshire Star, The Times, MoD

The Salisbury group was established 50 years ago this year

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Arms trade news


Campaign Against the Arms Trade’s latest newsletter is disturbing

November 2023

When we see the latest conflict on our screens, we almost do not notice the weaponry being used to cause the death and destruction. Ukraine has for the moment been displaced by the problems in Palestine and Gaza and the advance of the IDF into that territory. Yemen has taken a back seat in recent months and it is true there is currently a truce in place. A key supplier of arms is the UK and the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) newsletter, Autumn 2023, sets out some of the data and statistics concerning our role in these conflicts. We highlight two current issues.

In the case of Saudi Arabia, we are a major supplier of weaponry and BAE has 6,300 employees based there. Saudi bombing of civilian targets has caused untold misery among the population of the poorest country in the world. The Saudi prince, Mohammed bin Salman is due to come to the UK to meet the Prime Minister which has caused the relationship between ourselves and the kingdom to be put under the spotlight and has caused outrage among a number of campaigning groups. The UK claims it puts human rights at the centre of its discussions but there is no evidence of this.

Another conflict is in Gaza following the horrific attack on Israeli settlements on 7 October 2023. The UK has ‘consistently sold arms to Israel’ CAAT reports despite the illegal and growing number of settlements on the West Bank. Between 2018 and 2022, we exported £146m in arms via Single Issue Export Licences. However, they report there are a large number of Open General Export Licences which include components for the F35 stealth combat aircraft. This would imply a value of $72m in 2022. As the conflict has progressed and the misery inflicted on the people of Gaza increases, the morality of our continued sale of arms to Israel is called into question.

When we see these conflicts unfold around the world, we should always be aware that, as one of the world’s largest exporters of military equipment, a proportion of the weapons being used were provided by the UK. As bad as that is, it could be mitigated a little if the UK exerted tight control over the issue of licences and how, and upon whom, the weapons are used. Do not forget that it is always women and children who suffer the most in these conflicts not just from immediate injuries from shells or shrapnel, but long term trauma from having witnessed scenes we would not wish on anyone. Modern weapons are capable of considerable destruction that will take many years to rectify when the conflict is over. The evidence seems to be that the desire by our government for exports and the need to create employment, trumps considerations of humanity or human rights.

CAAT has been campaigning against the Defence and Security Equipment International arms fair which takes place each year at the Excel Centre. It is supported by the government with several ministers speaking and civil servants on hand to meet and greet. “Put simply” CAAT comments “DSEI is where war begins”. The countries attending include a roll call of oppressive regimes keen to secure the latest technology. Our support for this fair and the help offered to arms companies to secure deals with oppressive regimes, means we are complicit in the denial of rights and the continuation of conflicts around the world.

Source: CAAT News, Issue 267 Autumn 2023

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Arms firms’ staff employed in the Ministry of Defence


Report reveals the extent of arms firms’ staff employed in the MoD

28 September 2022

A report by Open Democracy reveals the extent of penetration of the Ministry of Defence by individuals employed by the arms companies. This raises immediate issues of conflict of interest, national security and the awarding of millions of pounds of contracts to those same firms as well as the question of licences allowing arms sales to proceed. Open Democracy report that the government would not say whether such secondments represented a conflict of interest.

There has been a long running campaign by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade CAAT, to hold the government to account for sales of weapons to Saudi Arabia. These weapons have been used in the war in Yemen causing untold misery and destruction and the deaths of at least 8,983 people. CAAT had some success and there was a brief moratorium. The government resumed offering licences claiming that violations of international human rights were ‘isolated incidents’. CAAT reports that an appeal is to be heard on 31 January 2023.

Firms include BAE, Leonardo and Qinetiq which has a large presence near Salisbury. The numbers are not small and around 50 individuals are involved. It has been confirmed that they were largely concentrated in the UK Defence and Export directorate which is involved in helping firms sell arms overseas. CAAT points out that it shows that the secondments are deeply embedded in the ministry. The government should be keeping a close eye on what arms are exported to which regime with proper attention to the human rights of the people involved in conflicts. This does not seem to have happened in the case of Yemen and free reign has been offered to companies to sell weapons to Saudi which have been used to bomb schools, hospitals, weddings and other targets. RAF personnel were also revealed to be involved in the activity.

An additional factor is what is called the ‘revolving door’. Senior civil servants, some ex-ministers and senior forces personnel – such as Generals and Admirals – leave or retire from their jobs and take lucrative positions in arms companies with only cursory checks. ACOBA is the government body charged with overseeing this is but has been widely criticised as ‘toothless’. A Private Eye report describes in detail the extent of the corruption. CAAT comments that staff leaving the forces or the MoD take with them extensive contacts and a deep knowledge of how the ministry works. Existing staff are reluctant to upset the arms companies for fear of jeopardising a lucrative consultancy or board appointment when it is their turn to retire. Transparency International have also reported on this problem in a report.

The sale of arms is a profoundly sensitive issue. What arms are sold to which regime is a matter of considerable importance. Films of conflicts around the world always show the various groups armed to the teeth with a wide range of weapons sold to them by overseas firms including those from the UK. These weapons cause untold misery, death or maiming of thousands of people and children. We surely have the right and expectation that the MoD is adopting the highest of standards in deciding on these matters and that decisions are taken with the greatest of integrity.

Yet what we find is that ministers are pusillanimous over the issuing of licences, that large numbers of staff from arms companies are involved in the decisions being made and that senior staff and military people are working in the expectation of being employed by the very companies they are supposed to be in control of.

The result of their actions is the death and suffering of people subject to bombing, drone attacks, cluster munitions, shelling and other outrages courtesy of UK arms firms aided and abetted by a deeply compromised Ministry of Defence. Is the Ministry working on our behalf, or to serve the interests of the arms firms?

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Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe


BBC programme about Nazanin

Members of the group and supporters will know that we have campaigned over the years on behalf of Nazanin who remains trapped in Iran. The last post we did can be accessed here. The main reason is the issue surrounding the tank deal we arranged with the Shah before he was deposed. Iran paid up front for these and after he was deposed the contract was cancelled and the new regime wanted its money back. Nazanin is effectively a hostage for this money.

At 13:45, after the World at One on Radio 4 (BBC) there is a fifteen minute programme each day on the background to this tragedy. You will be able to hear it via BBC Sounds in the usual way.

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Made in UK: bombed in Yemen


CAAT Webinar focusing on the role of UK arms firms in causing misery and death in Yemen

The purpose of the webinar was to focus on the role of UK arms suppliers in the continuing war in Yemen.  It featured a speaker from the Campaign Against the Arms Trade CAAT; one from Forensic Architecture and thirdly, Emily Thornberry MP.

The UK is not the only, or even the largest, supplier of weapons to the theatre, that role was taken by USA.  We must also not forget the role of the Iranian government who are supporting the Houthi rebels in the conflict.  Half of the Saudi air force is supplied by the UK and that includes spares and maintenance as well to keep them airworthy. US sales have been temporarily suspended by President Biden.

The Saudi government could not continue without UK support they suggested, not just in supplying weapons but diplomatic support as well in the UN.  We reported in 2015 the amazing news that Saudi had a seat on the UN’s Human Right’s Council.  It seems beyond belief that a country which executes people by decapitation with a sword, often in public, denies basic rights to women and uses torture as a matter of course, should have such a seat let alone be supported by the UK government.

The webinar put the role of arms suppliers in the spotlight who refuse to take responsibility for the mayhem their weapons cause.  Thousands have died and schools, hospitals, weddings and funerals have all been the subject of Saudi air raids.  RAF personnel are in Saudi to advise the Saudis yet many of these raids are in breach of International human rights.  There have been 55 airstrikes on health facilities alone. 

Hope for the future

The constant tide of grim stories which emerge from Yemen and the failure of our courts to hold the government to account, might make one despair at change ever being achieved.  The UK depends on the arms industry – and the network of City banks and agents who facilitate the movement of money – for a significant chunk of its exports.  They have been able to continue with this gruesome business because getting news and footage from the country is extremely difficult.  If the carnage was a regular feature of the news on TV things might have changed.  As it is, it can carry on largely unseen.

This might change with the arrival of an organisation called Forensic Architecture.  They are able to use forensic techniques to form linkages between airstrikes and the companies supplying the weapons.  They can show the impact of arms exports and the continuing targeting of civilians.  They can link therefore the sale of a jet to the bombing of a hospital.  Up to now, the companies, supported by the UK government, have been able to claim these violations are isolated incidents following the Court of Appeal decision to ban such sales.  Liz Truss claimed a review had been undertaken enabling sales to continue. Evidence gained by these methods will show complicity and make it harder to argue against complicity in what are war crimes.  This might be a game changer.

Forensic evidence might be a game changer

Emily Thornberry MP

Emily Thornberry is the shadow Secretary of International Trade opposite the minister, Liz Truss MP.  She said there have been 5 years of deceit practised on the British people.  The so called ‘isolated incidents’ based on the curious logic that as they were at different times and in different places therefore they are isolated.  British staff in Saudi ‘were in a different room’ therefore not complicit the minister claimed.  She pointed to the changing statements about the use of cluster munitions.  Her main point was that the UK has come to rely on these sales and it has distorted our policy in the region.  The government is caught in a web of complicity from which it cannot easily escape.  They will never change their position unless forced to do so by the Courts (which on previous experience is unlikely) or public opinion. 

Companies, civil servants and ministers are subject to the International Criminal Court for war crimes.  Will a case against those who were complicit in these crimes or who turned a blind eye, find themselves in front of the ICC?

A CAAT report on the arms trade was published today (14th July)

See also Mwatana and the Yemen Data Project and Human Rights Watch

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CAAT award


Campaign Against the Arms Trade nominated for the Nobel peace Prize

We are delighted to report this news today (19 February 2021).  We have often featured CAAT in our posts especially concerning the UK arms industry’s supply of weapons to Saudi Arabia.  These weapons have been used to cause immense harm and destruction in Yemen.  The Saudi air force has bombed markets, schools, hospitals, clinics and wedding ceremonies killing many thousands of people and wounding many more.  UK personnel are ‘advising’ the Saudis, ostensibly to help them observe international human rights standards.  They carefully stop short of actually attaching the weapons as this would make them mercenaries.

The UK government was stopped from granting licenses but they have resumed.

The link shows how this award will help CAAT in their work.

 

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Temporary halt to Saudi arms sales


President temporarily halts arms sales to Saudi Arabia

It’s only temporary, but it may be a start.  It is being cast as part of the normal review of sales which a new president undertakes upon taking office but let us hope that it becomes permanent.  The scale of destruction in Yemen continues apace so anything which acts to reduce it must be welcomed.

Sources: HRW; The Hill

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Post Brexit trade deals


UK likely to abandon human rights concerns in its rush for trade deals

News today (3 January 2021) that the government has agreed a comprehensive trade deal with Turkey has set alarm bells ringing about the future for human rights in further deals.  Following our departure a few days ago from the EU, the government is trying hard to secure trade deals around the world to replace any problems which might occur limiting trade with them.

The human rights situation in Turkey is dire.  Journalists and human rights defenders have been jailed on vague charges of the terrorism kind.  Newspapers have been closed.  Torture is common in police stations and there is a culture of impunity for the security forces.  Thousands of people are denied work accused of being terrorists or aiding terrorists.  Essentially the rule of law has all but broken down.

We do of course have to trade around the world and if we only did so with those with clean hands, business would be rather thin.  We do not have to sell them arms however to make the region less stable and enhance the president Erdogan’s ability to control his people.  Liz Truss’s unquestioning enthusiasm for a trade deal seemingly at any cost is to be deprecated.

Does regaining sovereignty mean selling anything to anyone?

 

Will this be repeated around the world with all sorts of regimes who mistreat their citizens, use torture routinely and are indifferent to human rights?  Time will tell but it is to be hoped that the desire to secure deals at any price, no questions asked, does not become the norm.  Is this what ‘regaining our sovereignty’ means?  Freedom to sell arms and other sensitive materials to some of the world’s worse regimes?

Peter Curbishley

 

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Arms sales to Saudi – latest


Campaign Against the Arms Trade launches legal challenge

CAAT has launched a legal challenge after the UK government decided to resume arms sales to the Saudis for use in their bombing campaign in Yemen.  We discussed the flimsy grounds and shaky reasoning for this decision in a previous post.  The CAAT post can be accessed here.

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Arms sales to Saudi resume


The UK has resumed arms sales to the Saudi regime

In 2019 the Court of Appeal ruled that the UK government had acted unlawfully by licensing weapons to the Saudi armed forces for use in the Yemen conflict without assessing whether incidents had occurred in breach of International Human Rights law.  Our weapons – along with those supplied by other countries principally the USA – have cause immense damage and suffering to the people of Yemen.  The UN has estimated around 7,700 dead since beginning of the conflict in 2015.  To that must be added the thousands of injured and the destruction of major parts of the country.  The effects on the civilian population have been devastating. 

Hospitals, schools, market places, residential areas, agricultural areas and production facilities have all been bombed using our planes and weapons.  Although mistakes do happen in war and the wrong thing is bombed, the extent of these ‘mistakes’ leads one to assume that there is a deliberate attempt to bomb civilian targets.  We must also note that UK personnel – including people from the RAF – are involved in advising the Saudis so something is going seriously wrong.

The British government maintains – against all the evidence – that there is no risk of IHL violations.  In a Commons statement on 7 July justifying setting aside the Court’s judgement, the minister, Liz Truss MP said:

[…] I have assessed that there is not a clear risk that the export of arms and military equipment to Saudi Arabia might be used in the commission of a serious violation of IHL.  (House of Commons written statement 7 July 2020)

It is worth reading the key passage in this statement which purports to give a justification for this decision:

This analysis has not revealed any such patterns, trends or systemic weaknesses.  It is noted, in particular, that the incidents which have been assessed to be possible violations of IHL occurred at different times, in different circumstances and for different reasons. The conclusion is that these are isolated incidents.

This reasoning is tenuous in the extreme.  Because violations ‘occurred at different times, in different circumstances and for different reasons’ the minister concluded that they are ‘isolated incidents’.  Surely a key factor is the frequency of these incidents especially if your argument is based on the numbers?  The sheer number of civilian targets is way beyond what anyone could describe as ‘isolated’.   The Oxford dictionary describes isolated to mean ‘untypical, unique’: these bombings are neither untypical nor unique.  Another curious aspect of this statement is the phrase ‘for different reasons’ implying knowledge of what the purpose of the raid was yet the statement is full of uncertainties and the difficulty of assessing the incidents.  

Kate Allen, director of Amnesty international said:

How the Government can seriously describe a five-year Saudi-led aerial assault on Yemen which has seen numerous examples of civilians killed in schools, hospitals, funeral halls and market places as a set of ‘isolated incidents’ is almost beyond comprehension.

This seems like an attempt to rewrite history and disregard international law. The UK is bypassing its obligations under the international arms control framework. Its approach to this decision has effectively rendered our own protections meaningless.  (New York Times, 7 July 2020)

It is small wonder that human rights organisations have reacted with horror at the decision and the speed with which the minister set about reinstating arms shipments to Saudi.  The Campaign Against the Arms Trade described the decision as ‘rank hypocrisy’.

The government is determined to sell arms to the Saudi and seems genuinely unconcerned at the fate of those on the receiving end.  Liz Truss’s argument about isolated incidents is almost insulting.  So great is the scale of the business that stopping it or seriously scaling it back is economically impossible.  Truly it is the tail which wags the dog.

Sources: BBC, CAAT; New York Times; Human Rights Watch; Independent; The Guardian

 

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