New report shows UK arms both sides in world’s most serious conflict zones

Government admits it doesn’t know the destination of 75% of UK military exports

A new report presented to Parliament today reveals that in 2004 the UK armed both sides of some of the world’s most serious conflict zones, in contradiction to the Government’s own arms control criteria. Meanwhile, the accountability of the UK’s arms control reporting is itself called into question by an admission that the Government only knows the country destination of around 25% of UK military exports.

The Government’s Strategic Exports Annual Report, the official record of arms exports from the UK in 2004, is released at 2pm today.[1] The report reveals that the government granted major arms export licenses to:

• both China and Taiwan
• both Israel and the rest of the Middle East
• both India and Pakistan[2]

Licenses were granted despite the government’s own export criteria – printed at the back of the report itself – that licenses would not be issued for exports which would provoke or prolong armed conflicts or aggravate existing tensions. Other substantial export licences were issued last year to major human rights abusers, including exports worth £19.5m to Saudi Arabia, and £12m to Indonesia.

Meanwhile, on the eve of the report’s publication the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) has revealed a recent admission by the Ministry of Defence that it only knows the country destination of around 25% of estimated military exports. The Government’s country-by-country export figures exclude sales to military customers of dual-use aerospace items and military services, which are not monitored by Customs and Excise. Excluded items range from military training to aircraft parts.[3]

CAAT today called on the Government to deliver on its stated commitment to tackle illicit and irresponsible arms trading by reforming Customs monitoring to cover these unaccountable exports.[4] CAAT spokesperson Mike Lewis said:

The arms export licences covered by the Annual Report are often so wide and unaccountable that – by its own admission – the government doesn’t know where three-quarters of estimated arms exports have been sent.

Even this limited record shows that Britain is openly arming human rights abusers, and fuelling tension in some of the worlds most unstable conflict zones. Once again the government seems oblivious to the potential misuses of arms exports on which it doesn’t keep track, and the documented abuses of exports on which it does.

For further information or interviews contact CAAT Press Office on 020 7281 0297 or email media(at)caat·org·uk.

Notes

1. The Government’s 2004 Annual Report on Strategic Export Controls was laid before Parliament at 14:00 today. The report is available online at www.fco.gov.uk
2. Standard individual export licences granted to these countries totalled:
   • India – £351m
   • Pakistan – £40m
   • China – £100m
   • Taiwan – £37.5m
   • Israel – £10.5m
   • Rest of Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt, UAE, Oman, Syria) – £51.25m
3. The Government’s Annual Report includes only the category of Identified defence equipment exports, which constituted £1.39bn last year, and £992m in 2003. The much larger value of additional aerospace equipment and military services, which in 2003 (the last available figure) was estimated at £3.26bn, is provided to the Government on a voluntary basis by aerospace companies themselves. In response to a Freedom of Information inquiry from CAAT on 26 May, the Ministry of Defence wrote that figures for these items, which have constituted three quarters of its estimated value of UK military exports in the past 2 years, cannot be broken down at country level. Copies of this letter are available from CAAT on request.
4. Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells, announcing the report today.