Arms fair dinner at Cutty Sark blockaded

A reception at the Cutty Sark for delegates to the DSEI arms fair is being disrupted by anti-arms campaigners this evening. The protesters have surprised the organisers by surrounding the Cutty Sark, blocking access to the event.

The action is part of the continuing protests against the arms fair taking place in the ExCeL Centre of the northern side of the Thames.

Sarah Waldron, from Campaign Against Arms Trade, said:

Arms dealers like to host their dinners in prestigious venues like this to try to give an acceptable face to their business – but they can’t put a gloss on the devastating impacts of the arms fair.

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ENDS

NOTES

1. The DSEI invitation list includes the following countries: Afghanistan (new invitee), Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Turkmenistan (new invitee), United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan (new invitee). Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Saudi Arabia are ranked 161-163 out of 167 in the Economist Democracy Index. A full list can be found here.
2. Not on the official invitation list were Egypt, which was invited in 2011 despite being in the midst of unrest – one month later 28 people were killed by security forces at Maspero – and Syria, last invited in 2003. However, the Russian Technologies State Corporation (ROSTEC) which owns Rosoboronexport, Syria’s main arms supplier, will be at DSEI. Nor was Nigeria, a past invitee, included.
3. Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEI) is one of the world’s biggest arms fairs and has been held biennially in the ExCeL centre in East London’s Docklands since 1999. DSEI receives major financial, logistical and political support from the UK government, most notably through UK Trade & Investment Defence & Security Organisation. The last DSEI in 2011 invited delegations from Bahrain, Egypt, Libya and Saudi Arabia, countries which have turned their weapons on civilian protesters. The fair will also host:
   • The company which supplies 78% of Assad’s conventional weaponry.
   • The companies which manufactured the tear gas which has killed and injured protesters in Bahrain, Egypt, Turkey, Brazil and elsewhere.
   • The company which in 2009 and 2011 was found guilty of promoting illegal cluster munitions at the fair.
4. In July, the House of Commons’ Committees on Arms Export Controls (CAEC) said 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. Last month Prime Minister David Cameron met with Bahrain’s autocratic King Hamad to discuss a potential deal for BAE’s Typhoon jets. Cameron talked of ongoing political reform in Bahrain even though the King had, that day, issued a decree banning protests.
5. The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) in the UK works to end the international arms trade. The arms business has a devastating impact on human rights and society and damages economic development. Large-scale military procurement and arms exports only reinforce a militaristic approach to international problems. In 2012, CAAT was awarded a Right Livelihood Award, the alternative Nobel Prize for its innovative and effective campaigning against the arms trade.