tank UK
© Amer Ghazzal/REX/ShutterstockA Challenger tank for sale at the DSEI Arms Fair in London, 2019.
Two-thirds of countries classified as "not free" because of their dire record on human rights and civil liberties have received weapons licensed by the UK government over the past decade, new analysis reveals.

Between 2011-2020, the UK licensed £16.8bn of arms to countries criticised by Freedom House, a US government-funded human rights group.

Of the 53 countries castigated for a poor record on political and human rights on the group's list, the UK sold arms and military equipment to 39.

Noteworthy recipients include Libya, which received £9.3m of assault rifles, military vehicle components and ammunition. Last week it was the focus of international peace talks to stabilise a country where armed groups and foreign powers compete for influence.


Comment: Prior to the West's war on Libya the country enjoyed a democracy with some of the highest living standards in Africa.


Further analysis by the London-based Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) found that £11.8bn of arms had been authorised by the UK government during the same period to the Foreign Office's own list of "human rights priority countries". Two-thirds of the countries - 21 out of 30 - on the UK government list of repressive regimes had received UK military equipment.

The Department for International Trade has also identified nine nations as "core markets" for arms exports that groups say are guilty of many human rights abuses, including Egypt, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Turkey.


Comment: Thai democracy protesters rally against govt despite 'Covid warnings'


The UK government has already admitted that a Saudi-led coalition has attacked Yemen using weapons made by British companies with the UK supplying more than half of combat aircraft used by the Middle East kingdom for its bombing raids.


Comment: The UK has been actively training and advising the Saudi army in its war on Yemen, with the UN declaring the blockade on the country as unlawful, and as causing one of the world's greatest humanitarian disasters: Revealed: Hundreds of Saudi and Gulf military personnel trained in Britain as war on Yemen continues


"Right now, UK-made weapons are playing a devastating role in Yemen and around the world. The arms sales that are being pushed today could be used in atrocities and abuses for years to come," said Andrew Smith of the CAAT.

Further arms deals are expected in the near future with many of the countries on the Freedom House list expected to send representatives to September's international arms fair in east London.

"Wherever there is oppression and conflict there will always be arms companies trying to profit from it, and complicit governments helping them to do so," said Smith.


Comment: This is not just the work of 'greedy companies', the UK government itself is complicit in these war crimes.


"Many of these sales are going to despots, dictatorships and human rights abusing regimes. They haven't happened by accident. None of these arms sales would have been possible without the direct support of Boris Johnson and his colleagues," added Smith.

Russia was also among the beneficiaries of UK arms sales - in the last decade, it received £44m of UK arms including ammunition, sniper rifle components and gun silencers, analysis shows. Moscow last week claimed it had chased a British destroyer out of Crimean waters with warning shots and bombs.


Comment: Were it not for Russia, the UK would be actively involved in even more human rights abuses and wars of aggression than it is.


The sales to Russia and Libya were, however, made before ongoing arms embargoes to both countries were introduced, a situation that critics say highlights the short-term thinking behind most arms sales.

The Department for International Trade has been contacted for comment.