Urge the UK government to stop UK arms being used against civilians
According to an article in the UK's Times newspaper recently, British military vehicles were used in the recent violence in Uzbekistan. On 13th May 2005, Uzbekistani military forces fired on protestors in the town of Andijan. The BBC has reported that hundreds of people may have been killed during the shootings. The fact that British military vehicles were used highlights a glaring loophole in arms laws, which allows weapons to end up in the wrong hands.
Use the form on the right to send a message to Alan Johnson, Secretary of State for the Department of Trade and Industry, and urge the UK government to stop UK arms being used for atrocities.
Read the article in the Times
The UK government has stated that it wants to prevent the sales of arms to countries where they might be used in abuses against civilians. The UK has laws in place that are intended to regulate where weapons can be exported. It is also proposing an international Arms Trade Treaty, which would ban sales of arms to regimes that might misuse them. Yet there are loopholes in British legislation that allow arms to get into the wrong hands.
Current British laws prevent the sale of military Landrover vehicles directly to Uzbekistan but they do not stop other countries from re-exporting them.
The Control Arms campaign is calling for tougher international arms controls. The fact that British arms have been used in the recent killings shows why we need these controls urgently. Please email the UK government to show your support for tougher arms controls – asking them to do two things:
tighten British arms laws by closing existing loopholes, and
honour the UK government’s commitment to push for an international Arms Trade
Treaty.
Further coverage in the Times newspaper reports that British Members of Parliament are calling for an investigation into the scandal. Read this further coverage.
Anna MacDonald, Director of Campaigns at Oxfam said,
“The current law means that simply by assembling the weapons overseas the company can completely avoid British export controls, despite being British designs, British technology and including British parts.
This case shows what happens when the government ignores our concerns. As long ago as 1998 we were calling on them to close this very loophole. Sadly the government has ignored our repeated warnings to close this loophole and now we see the tragic results.
MPs are right to be calling for an urgent inquiry and for the loophole to be closed before it is too late for yet more civilians caught on the wrong end of British weaponry.
Jack Straw must push the arms trade treaty even harder as a result of this scandal, but the DTI must support this international drive with tough action to close loopholes in Britain's own laws.
The Control Arms campaign has been pushing for an arms trade treaty, and hundreds of thousands of ordinary people around the world are actively campaigning for their government to support this.”
from
www.controlarms.org