Protesters in Cairo. Photo: Ramy Raoof/flickr CC
Arms and Egypt
Symon Hill reports
The close relationship between several arms-producing countries in the European Union (EU)and the regime of president Hosni Mubarak in Egypt has been brought to light. In recent years the Mubarak regime has benefitted from a sharp increase in arms sales from EU countries. The evidence was found in an EU report that had been largely overlooked until examined by an Italian activist.
The news came days before Hosni Mubarak was forced from power by mass protests. France and Germany announced a freeze on arms sales to Egypt shortly after the uprising began, but the UK government refused to follow suit.
In 2009, EU governments taken together issued arms export licences for Egypt worth £293 million – an increase of sixty-nine per cent on the previous year. In the same period, the UK’s licences for arms to Egypt bucked the EU trend. They declined by £7m, from £23.4m to £16.4m. Arms sales also increased to other troubled north African countries, including Tunisia, Morocco and Libya.
The statistics reveal British arms sales to the Ben Ali regime in Tunisia, which was recently overthrown in a popular uprising. The value of UK licences for arms to Tunisia more than trebled in 2009, reaching £5.9m.
The statistics appear in an EU report on export controls published last month. It had received little attention until investigated by Giorgio Beretta of Unimondo, an Italian NGO working with the European Network Against the Arms Trade.
‘For years the UK has been selling weapons to these authoritarian regimes, although it is obvious that their main use would be for internal repression,’ argued Kaye Stearman of the Campaign Against Arms Trade in the UK.
The UK foreign secretary, William Hague has been visiting north Africa and calling for ‘free and open societies’. Kaye Stearman urged him to ‘back up these noble sentiments with positive action and to place an immediate arms embargo on the whole region’.
