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> WSWS : News & Analysis : Europe : Britain
>
> Labour to host Britain's largest arms bazaar
>
> By Tony Hyland
> 13 September 1999
>
> Back to screen version
>
> Britain is to stage its largest ever arms and military equipment fair September
> 14-17. The exhibition brings together representatives of the UK's three armed
> forces, along with some 600 defence companies and official delegates from over
> 50 countries.
>
> In suburban Surrey and London's Docklands, uniformed generals from some of the
> world's most dictatorial regimes will mingle with sharp suited businessman.
> Sales representatives from the leading arms manufacturers in Britain and
> internationally will compete for the attention of prospective buyers by
> demonstrating the destructive capabilities of their products.
>
> Defence Systems Equipment International (DSEi), the company responsible for the
> exhibition, boasted in its brochure that "DSEi is Europe's largest and most
> prestigious defence exhibition ...DSEi responds to demands from the industry and
> from key customers for a single defence event in the UK. One exhibition at which
> to display and view defence systems and defence equipment solutions.”
>
> The exhibition is sponsored by Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA), a
> government research agency. The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is in charge of the
> foreign delegates invited to the event with Defence Secretary, George Robertson,
> opening the proceedings. The wining and dining involved is likely to run up a
> large hospitality bill. The UK Department of Defence alone is expected to
> contribute £250,000 to meet the costs of keeping the visiting officials in their
> customary style.
>
> That this largest ever arms fair is being hosted by Labour belies its claim to
> have developed an “ethical foreign policy.” This phrase was first coined by
> Foreign Secretary Robin Cook back in May 1997. Then the newly elected government
> pledged to break with the practice of its Conservative predecessors and stop
> British manufacturers from selling arms to countries which then used them for
> internal repression.
>
> The recent bloodshed in East Timor, and the collusion of the Indonesian security
> forces with the anti-independence militias, focussed attention on the arms
> fair's invitation list drawn up by Labour. Indonesia appeared as one of the
> MoD's official guests. The invite was only withdrawn earlier this week, in the
> teeth of opposition from the MoD.
>
> Lady Symons, Defence Procurement Minister, initially protested that Indonesia
> had the right to look at what equipment was on offer for “self-defence.” Her
> claims became increasingly untenable as news broke that a British Aerospace
> manufactured Hawk jet had flown over Dili, the East Timor capital, in
> intimidatory action by the Indonesian military. Hawk aircraft were used in
> Indonesia's invasion of East Timor in 1975. Since then 200,000 people, a third
> of the population have died as a result of the occupation.
>
> The retreat was largely a public relations exercise, however. Since it came to
> office, the Labour government has consistently refused to stop arming Indonesia.
> It refused to revoke the licenses, issued by its Conservative predecessor, for
> the export of 16 Hawk jets and a large quantity of armoured vehicles to
> Indonesia. These weapons have also been employed against the civilian population
> on the domestic front. During the anti-Suharto demonstrations last year
> British-made Scorpion tanks were in evidence among the security forces armoury.
>
> France and Britain were the biggest exporters of arms to Indonesia last year. UK
> exports were worth £112 million and French approximately double that amount.
> Britain exported over £100 million worth of arms, including 23 armoured combat
> vehicles and four Hawk jets in 1997. Information garnered from written
> parliamentary answers in the year up to May 1998 by the human rights group
> Amnesty International show that Labour also approved 64 export licenses for
> military equipment destined for Indonesia.
>
> Britain has also been involved in training the country's Kospassus Special
> Forces. One of the exhibitors at the forthcoming fair, the Nitor Group, provided
> counter-insurgency training to the Kospassus. The latter played a critical role
> in destabilising East Timor before Indonesia's invasion two decades ago and was
> recently linked with the militia's terror campaign.
>
> Indonesia is not the only instance in which Labour has been caught with its
> "ethics" around its ankles. According to Amnesty International at least 30 of
> the countries represented at the fair are classified as repressive regimes
> and/or torturous states.
>
> China has been invited, despite Britain being a signature to an extensive arms
> embargo introduced by the European Union in 1989 following the Tiananmen Square
> massacre. The MoD described China as “a long term prospect.” Other countries
> invited include Pakistan and India who only recently stood on the brink of war.
> Representatives will also come from Saudi Arabia, Oman and the other oil rich
> dynasties in the Persian Gulf.
>
> The double standards of British foreign policy are also highlighted by its
> relationship with Turkey—another coveted guest. While the military assault on
> Serbia was justified on the grounds of halting ethnic cleansing, Britain
> continues to arm a state whose violation of human rights is well documented. The
> ethnic cleansing of the Kurds by the Turkish armed forces far surpasses anything
> practised by the Serb militia in Kosovo.
>
> In March, Robertson had described Serb army atrocities in Kosovo in terms
> reminiscent of a Victorian melodrama. This was to justify escalating the
> NATO-led bombardment. He displayed no such sensitivity when, in his capacity as
> Secretary of State, he had clinched arms deals with Turkey, then engaged in
> aggressive action against the Kurdish population in the southeast of the
> country. Robertson met his Turkish counterpart, Izmit Sezkin, at a 1997 British
> arms fair in which Royal Ordnance, a subsidiary of British Aerospace, was
> exhibiting. Just months after this meeting, Royal Ordnance announced that it had
> secured a contract with Turkey to manufacture 500,000 HK33 assault rifles.
>
> The government cynically claims that it is difficult for it to monitor the "end
> use" of the arms exported by Britain. As if water cannons, armoured personnel
> carriers and fighter planes could be used to enhance democracy and further world
> peace.
>
> Britain is second only to the United States in terms of arms exports. At least
> £4,598 million worth of military equipment left the UK for overseas countries in
> 1997 while new orders amounted to approximately £5,500 million. The leading
> British arms producers work very closely with the government. “We don't export
> without the permission of Her Majesty's Government and we follow HMG's policy,
> which we believe is an ethical policy,” Marconi Electronic Systems states. The
> company has subsidiaries in the UK, North America and Europe. It has a workforce
> of 40,000 and a turnover in excess of £4 billion. Its satellite and radar
> systems are sold on nearly every continent, but its main selling point is the
> accuracy of its smart missiles.
>
> British Aerospace conducts business with 70 countries. It is also anxious to
> prove that it collaborates very closely with the government, following the
> controversy over its contracts with Indonesia. “We rely on the Government to
> make decisions on customer countries and we have to give undertakings from
> government departments,” the company states. In fact, evidence of the use of its
> Hawk jets in East Timor was only uncovered by investigative journalists and not
> from research by the government or company.
>
> Fearing further embarrassing revelations, the government has attempted to fend
> off awkward questions about the arms fair. The guest list was only made
> available to MP's two months after Labour MP Jim Fitzpatrick requested it during
> parliamentary question time. Some of the exhibiting companies have approached
> the fair's organisers to withhold press credentials from the journalist Albert
> Beale, a contributor to the magazine Peace News.
>
>
>
>
>
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