UK urged to end arms sales to Egypt
CAAT has called for an immediate end to UK arms sales to Egypt
The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) has called for an immediate end to UK arms sales to Egypt, following the recent wave of violence in the country. Arms exports to Egypt rose sharply in the first quarter of the year. £45 million of exports were licensed for military helicopter components and small arms between January and March 2013. This compares to £26 million in total military exports licensed between 2008 and 2012.
According to CAAT, the UK continued to sell arms to Egypt after the military coup in late June 2013, and only revoked five arms licences in July after dozens were killed by the Egyptian security forces at a peaceful protest.
Hundreds have died and thousands more have been injured in the security forces’ recent crackdown on protesters who have called for the reinstatement of ousted president Mohammed Morsi.
Sarah Waldron, core campaign coordinator at CAAT, said: ‘The UK government is supposedly “deeply concerned”. On Wednesday night [14 August] Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt told Newsnight [BBC programme] that the British government is on the side of the Egyptian people. If that’s true, then it needs to stop the arms sales immediately – all of them.
‘The Egyptian government has been a regular visitor to UK sponsored arms fairs, including the biennial Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEi), scheduled to be held at London’s ExCel Centre in September. It was invited to the last event in 2011, just one month before twenty-eight people were killed in the Maspero massacre. It must not be invited again.’
DSEi, one of the world’s biggest arms fairs, is scheduled for 10-13 September 2013. Christian communities across the country are planning a Day of Prayer on Sunday 8 September to pray for a less militarized and more peaceful society. Quaker Peace & Social Witness is encouraging Friends, and in particular young Quakers, to take part in a multi-faith candle-lit vigil near the ExCel Centre the evening before the arms fair opens.
Rhiannon Rees, a member of Croydon Meeting, who plans to attend some of the protests, said: ‘How can we say that we “live in the virtue of that life and power that takes away the occasion of all wars” whilst our taxes are subsidising this deadly trade?’
