© ReutersBritish Prime Minister David Cameron used his three-day tour to help sell 100 Typhoon jets to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman
British Prime Minister David Cameron used his three-day tour to help sell 100 Typhoon jets to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman.
On the first day of his controversial money-making tour to the region, the Prime Minister insisted that flogging military equipment to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates was "legitimate".
He made the remarks in Dubai where he launched a major push to sell British jets but the comments were slammed by human rights campaigners who believe that the arms sales would instigate regional rivalries and confrontations and meantime strengthen the tough stance of Arab dictatorial regimes against their nations.
Responding to the news of the Cameron's visit to the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia to promote Britain arms sales, Amnesty International Britain's Head of Policy and Government Affairs Allan Hogarth said, "Selling arms to countries like Saudi Arabia and the UAE should only be considered if there are absolutely watertight guarantees over them not being used to commit human rights violations."
"Saudi Arabia has been the recipient of record-breaking arms deals involving the UK, yet these have been highly secretive and there's been little or no follow-up over how the weaponry was used."
"For example, in 2009 the Saudi air force used UK-supplied Tornado fighter-bombers in attacks in Yemen which killed hundreds - possibly thousands - of civilians. In one attack conducted by Saudi forces on the town of al-Nadir in November 2009, so many were killed in just one extended family that witnesses say the family 'had to create a cemetery for themselves'," Hogarth underscored.
"More than two years ago we called for the UK government to urgently investigate Saudi Arabia's involvement in this episode and meanwhile suspend any further arms supplies to Saudi Arabia," the activist said.
"In the past a large Saudi chequebook has apparently meant it could purchase weapons as well as silence over its own dreadful human rights record. It's time for David Cameron to end this deeply disturbing trade-off."
no change , surprised ?
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From 1998 .
In East Timor 200,000 people, one third of the population, were killed or died of starvation after the Indonesian army invaded in 1975, and massacres continue. Thousands of people in Aceh and Irian Jaya were butchered over the years for daring to seek independence.
Many people believed that this would inevitably mean a halt of arms sales to Indonesia. After all, in 1978 Robin Cook wrote in the New Statesman, 'The current sale of Hawk aircraft to Indonesia is particularly disturbing as the purchasing regime is not only repressive but actually at war on two fronts: in East Timor... and West Papua.' Even in 1994 he was attacking the Tories on the same issue, exposing the use of Hawk aircraft for bombing raids in East Timor.
Today, the bombing raids in East Timor continue. So does the use of British Scorpion tanks to plough through pro-democracy demonstrators and British guns to shoot down peaceful protesters. And so do the sales of British weapons to Suharto. In the week that Cook announced his 'ethical' policy, the Indonesian minister for defence revealed that talks were continuing for the purchase of 18 more Hawks. The second largest British arms supplier to Indonesia, Procurement Services International, was told by Blair that 'the type of equipment the Conservatives have given export licences to will present no difficulty for the Labour government'. Sure enough, the company's record £700 million business with Suharto has continued unimpeded and is still being backed by government credit guarantees and soft loans paid for by British taxpayers.
Since 1945 there has been no discernible difference between the foreign policies of Labour and Tory governments. In 1965 the Labour government under Harold Wilson aided the slaughter in Indonesia in order to rid the country of Communists. The first minister responsible for selling Hawks to Suharto was not a Tory, but Labour's foreign secretary, David Owen, in 1978. He justified the sale by saying that estimates of the killing in East Timor had been 'exaggerated'. Today an appropriate slogan for Blair might be, 'New Labour, old foreign policy new arms sales to dictators'.
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