UK must stop arms sales to Egypt immediately

As the death toll rises in Egypt, Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) has called for an immediate end to all arms sales to Egypt.

Less than a month ago the UK government’s own data revealed a sharp rise in arms export licences to Egypt, a country which in the past has not been seen as a major export market for UK weaponry. Between January and March 2013, the UK licensed over £45 million worth of arms to Egypt. The bulk comprised two licences for £43 million for components for military helicopters, but there were also licences for £308,000 for small arms.

In the early days of the Arab Spring Prime Minister David Cameron visited Cairo, supposedly to support democracy campaigners who had overthrown the Mubarak government. However, it later transpired that his chief role was as leader of a Middle East trade mission, which included executives from eight major arms companies with markets in the region.

In September 2011 the UK government invited Egyptian military buyers to attend an arms fair in London, just a month before 28 people were killed in the Maspero massacre.

The UK continued to sell arms to Egypt after the military coup in late June 2013, only revoking five arms licences in July after the military massacred dozens at a sit-in.

Sarah Waldron of Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) said:

The UK government says it is deeply concerned. On Wednesday night Foreign Office Minister Alistair Burt told Newsnight 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 & 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 28 people were killed in the Maspero massacre. It must not be invited again.

ENDS

NOTES

1. Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEI) is one of the world’s biggest arms fairs and has been held every two years in the ExCeL Centre in East London’s Docklands since 1999. The 2013 DSEI arms fair is scheduled for 10-13 September 2013. DSEI receives major financial, logistical and political support from the UK government, most notably through UK Trade & Investment Defence & Security Organisation.
2. In a report issued on 17 July the parliamentary Committees on Arms Export Controls was deeply critical of the UK government’s arms sales to Egypt and added Egypt (and four other countries) to the FCO list of 27 countries of concern for their record of human rights abuse. It reiterated its belief that there is an inherent conflict between strongly promoting arms exports to authoritarian regimes whilst strongly criticising their lack of human rights at the same time and asked the Government to acknowledge the contradiction.