Taiwan Sun
Wednesday 19th October, 2011
• Report singles out US, UK and others for weapons sales
• Western nations sold weapons to regimes with questionable human rights
• Those weapons used against civilians in Arab Spring uprisings
In a new report, the UK-based human rights group says that weapons sold by the United States, Russia, the UK and other European countries, were used to repress popular uprisings in the Arab World that western countries have supported.
“To the extent that arms transfers are knowingly engaged in and result in the perpetration of crimes against humanity, the transferring state also becomes responsible under international law,” Sanjeev Bery, the group’s Washington-based advocacy director for Middle East and North Africa, told The Associated Press.
The release of the report comes as Amnesty International lobbies the US Congress to block a US $53 million deal that will see the United States sell a range of weaponry to the government of Bahrain, where more than 30 people have been killed.
Bahrain was rocked by protests earlier in the year when majority Shiite Muslims demanded greater democracy and social freedoms from the minority Sunni Muslim monarchy.
The government of the tiny island nation, backed by troops from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, implemented a crackdown that was widely condemned by the international community.
In compiling the report, Amnesty looked at arms transfers since 2005 to key countries rocked by protests this year.
The report studies Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Syria and Bahrain and alleges that the main suppliers of arms since 2005 were the US, Britain, Russia, Germany, Italy, France, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic.
Interestingly, four of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council are included in that list.
“It’s precisely the wrong signal to send for the Obama administration to be on the verge of sending US $53 million in weapons to a Bahrani king whose security forces have already been opening fire on peaceful protesters this year,” an Amnesty spokesperson said.
In response, the US State Department has said the human rights situation in Bahrain will be considered before final approval is given for the arms sale.
“We’re going to continue to look at all the elements on the ground, including the human rights situation,” spokesperson Mark Toner told reporters.
The report comes just days after the United Kingdom announced plans to change arms export rules to include a mechanism allowing the immediate suspension of licenses to countries experiencing a sharp deterioration in security or stability.
“The Government is determined to learn the wider lessons of events in the Middle East and North Africa,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a written statement.
The British government has said it reviewed and revoked dozens of licenses approving weapons sales to Libya, Bahrain, Tunisia and Egypt following protests in those countries.
Amnesty argues that the United States, United Kingdom and others supplying weapons have long ignored the human rights violations under many of the regimes and shouldn’t have sold them in the first place.
“The international community needs to know exactly what’s being given to whom and exactly how it’s being used,” says a spokesperson for Amnesty International. “If not, the US government should not be in the business of providing those specific weapons to begin with.”
Colonel6's Blog 