Stop the shipment: Protests call for South Korea to end tear gas supplies to Bahrain

Protesters in gas-masks took action at the South Korean embassy in London this morning as part of an international campaign to stop tear gas shipments to Bahrain.

A leaked document shows Bahrain’s Interior Ministry has placed a huge order for 1.6 million tear gas canisters – more than the entire population of Bahrain.

Teargas has been used on an unprecedented scale in Bahrain since 2011, on many occasions in residential areas when there are no protests. It has been fired in confined areas, including into people’s homes. Canisters have also been fired directly at people’s heads, causing serious injuries and deaths. Victims of tear gas have added their own testimonies on the Stop the Shipment website.

Research by Bahrain Watch shows that Bahrain’s main suppliers appear to be DaeKwang Chemical Corporation and CNO Tech of South Korea. Campaigners are calling for South Korea and other states to Stop The Shipment, but so far South Korea has refused to make a statement.

Last week, Bahraini rights groups had attempted to deliver a letter detailing their concerns to the London embassy, but it refused to accept it. This morning an embassy representative again refused to speak to protesters; instead he called the police and demanded their removal. The protesters remained and vowed to return if South Korea does not rule out making such a shipment.

At the protest, Sarah Waldron from Campaign Against Arms Trade said:

We’re here to urge South Korea – and other states – to stop supporting the crackdown in Bahrain. There is extensive evidence of tear gas being used to crush legitimate dissent and as a form of collective punishment. Any company or state which continues to supply weapons and support to Bahrain is complicit in this abuse.

The UK should be speaking out against the ongoing repression in Bahrain and this shipment. Instead it too continues to push arms sales instead of human rights

Tens of thousands of emails have been sent to tear gas manufacturers and export licensing authorities and the campaign has been endorsed by high profile figures including Noam Chomsky and John Pilger. Protests are expected in the United States, Bahrain and South Korea itself next week.

ENDS

For further information please contact CAAT’s Campaign Co-ordinator on 020 7281 0297 or 07990 673232 or campaign(at)caat·org·uk.

Notes

1. Stop the Shipment is an international campaign, coordinated by Bahrain Watch, to highlight how Bahrain’s police misuse tear gas and to take action to stop the use and export of teargas to Bahrain.
2. The UK has continued to promote arms sales to Bahrain despite the continuing human rights abuses there. In 2012 the UK licensed weaponry worth £4.6 million to Bahrain. The largest category by far was small arms, amounting to £4.2 million. Saudi Arabia, the UK’s major arms buyer, used UK Tactica armoured personnel vehicles to support the Bahrain government’s repression in March 2011.
3. 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 Bahrain and added Bahrain to their 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.
4. Prime Minister David Cameron met with Bahrain’s King Hamad in August 2013 and pledged continued support for ongoing political reform in Bahrain, even though the king had, that same day, issued new decrees banning protests. The King had indicated his eagerness to buy a fleet of Eurofighter Typhoon jets.
5. The UK continues to push arms sales to Bahrain. In September it invited Bahrain to send an official delegation to the DSEI arms fair in London. Maryam Al-Khawaja, Acting President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, said the invite can be construed as offering support for the crackdown and sending a message of business as usual.
6. 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.