The U.K. arms fair has attracted controversy in the past. In 2011, the Defense and Security Event DSEI extended invitations to Middle Eastern countries including Bahrain, a major human rights violator where authorities killed and tortured protesters during the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011, and this year, the U.K. arms fair is causing a controversy no different.
Human rights activists have been campaigning for bans on weapons of torture and the illegal sales of guns, military armor and tanks to unrecognized military forces or rebel groups who inflicted war crimes on populations.
Two international arms companies have been ejected from the exhibition for promoting illegal weapons for torture.
U.K. Green Party MP Caroline Lucas raised the issue in the House of Commons, and said that these firms were promoting handheld electric shock weapons, leg irons and stun batons.
“It’s frankly disgusting that items like this are being promoted at a supposedly legitimate trade event in Britain,” said Lucas.
She added, “Time and again the organizers of DSEI have shown that they cannot guarantee that exhibitors will remain with the law. The government is supposed to regulate this event and has shown startling complacency.”
On the DSEI website, event organizers confirmed that French firm Magforce International and Chinese company Tianjin Myway International Trading Co. were ejected after they were found to have literature in breach of British law. This evidence had been passed to the U.K.’s Revenue and Customs department for further investigation.
In a statement the DSEI said, “This action highlights our commitment to ensuring that all equipment, services, promotional material, documentation and anything else on display at DSEI complies with domestic and international law.”
This latest U.K. arms fair controversy comes at a particularly awkward moment for Britain and the United States, who in recent months have been looking to participate in either arming Syrian rebel forces or carrying out military air strikes against the Syrian regime of Bashar al–Assad.
With this latest revelation of ejecting companies showing illegal weapons at DSEI arms fair, a U.K. government control event it fuels the debate on how much control the government has in these events and how much control they have on the buyer of weapons.
Illegal arms sales
Green Party MP Caroline Lucas has led the charge against the U.K. government handling of the U.K. arms fair, allowing illegal weapons of torture being allowed into the U.K. The secretive nature of DSEI arms fair where information about arms exhibitors and buyers is dependent on discretion of the DSEI organised has not aided this latest revelation of illegal weapons.
The Independent said that under the 2008 U.K. Export Control Order, any restraints that are not ordinary handcuffs similar to those used by British police and all electric shock devices modified for the purposes of riot control or self-protection are listed as Category A and are seen to be materials that could be used for torture.
Though they are not illegal, any trade in these items are under the strict regulations of government license. The U.K. government guidelines states, “These strict controls reflect the fact that the supply of many of these goods is inherently undesirable. Licenses will not normally be granted for any trade in paramilitary goods listed because of their use in torture.”
A spokesman for MagForce told the Independent, “As far as I am aware we have never sold any of these items. Most of our customers are in Africa. We act as a supplier and we do not manufacture these goods.”
The international marketplace of arms manufacturing and paramilitary goods have no restrictions in the research and development of more powerful weaponry, and it’s the role of governments to control whether these weapons should have licenses. And not all countries share the same the view.
Human rights activists have been campaigning for bans on weapons of torture and the illegal sales of guns, military armory and tanks to unrecognized military forces or rebel groups who inflicted war crimes against the population.
Protesters at DSEI
Protesters from Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) and Occupy stepped up their efforts to disrupt the U.K. arms fair with a staged ‘die-in’ protest in an attempt to highlight the hypocrisy of what protesters believe to be an invitation to manufacturers of Syria’s weapons to showcase their wars in the U.K., while also condemning Syrian president Bashar al-Assad for using them.
Protesters spent Tuesday lining the streets outside the DSEI exhibition in London, some even super-gluing themselves to the road.
Sarah Waldron of the Campaign Against the Arms Trade said, ‘We’re taking action in solidarity with people across the world who suffer as a result of the deals that will be done here on our doorstep and challenging our government’s militarism and complicity in human rights abuse and bloodshed.”
The fight continued on Wednesday when anti-arms trade protesters targeted Lockheed Martin offices in London. Nine anti-arms trade protesters were arrested after padlocking themselves to the doors of the company.
Activists used superglue as well as locks to attach themselves to the front and rear entrances of the building. Lizzie Bradley, a protester at the Lockheed Martin office said, “It’s sickening that Lockheed Martin are able to pass themselves off as a legitimate company. Their weapons have been used to commit war crimes all over the world, from the Hellfire missiles used in Iraq to their work interrogating prisoners in Guantanamo Bay.”
In response to the strong reaction a spokesman for DSEI said, “We recognise and respect the right to protest and we plan for these scenarios in advance.”
DSEI added, “It is the police’s responsibility to monitor protester activity and ensure it is carried out within the law.”
In the closing days of the DSEI arms fair, Sarah Waldron, core campaigner at CAAT took the protest to Parliament. She vows to keep up the pressure on the arms industry and the government complicity in profiting from arms manufacturing.
Waldron said, “From the tear gas in Turkey, Egypt and Brazil to the weapons of the Syrian Assad regime, the DSEI arms fair is a global showroom of bloodshed and profit.”