UK sends arms mission to Libya
The UKTI plans to send a trade delegation in March
Ministers are planning a trade mission to sell arms to the new Libyan government. The decision has been described as ‘shameless’ by the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT). UK Trade and Investment (UKTI), a unit of the Department for Business, is planning a trade delegation in March on behalf of its arms wing, the Defence and Security Organisation (UKTI DSO). The news was revealed by junior trade minister Mark Prisk.
He reported that the government would promote arms sales in twenty-four countries between now and March. They include Colombia, Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan.
CAAT’s Kaye Stearman said that the UK government should, instead, support democracy in Libya by offering ‘to assist in disarming the population and collecting and destroying the weaponry that the UK and other countries so stupidly sold to Gaddafi’.
UKTI has drawn criticism for devoting more staff to arms than to all civil sectors combined, although arms make up only 1.2 percent of UK exports.
Responsibility for arms promotion was moved to UKTI in 2008, following the closure of the Defence Export Services Organisation (DESO), a section of the Ministry of Defence.
DESO was closed after a long-running campaign by CAAT, Quaker Peace & Social Witness and other groups.
