This weekend, thousands of terrorists from all over the world will
be descending on the ExCel Centre in London’s Docklands for the
DSEI Arms Fair.
To greet them will be one million pounds worth of security – paid
for by the taxpayer. Two thousand officers from the Met, 300
British Transport Police, City of London police officers, Ministry
of Defence police, plain clothes detectives, security guards and
specialists from the Met’s marine, dogs and horse units, have all
been drafted in. Not to arrest those selling weapons of mass
destruction but to protect those same, poor, arms dealers from
demonstrators who’ve vowed to try and shut down this ‘trade in
death.’
Welcome to the Defence Systems and Equipment International (DSEi –
pronounced dicey) Exhibition 2003, Europe’s biggest arms fair.
Opening the fair will be Minister of War Geoff Hoon, while
delegations from no less than sixty countries will have their
accommodation and board paid for by the taxpayer while they shop
for weapons. Somewhat astutely, a senior officer from the Met says
they are anticipating a “major public order headache.”
The UK arms industry accounts for 20% of world weapon sales and
after agriculture is the most heavily government subsided
industry. Scientists for Global Responsibility (SGR) say that MoD
spending on research and development has increased by 27% over the
last year. Dr. Stuart Parkinson, SGR Director said: “Much of the
MoD’s research and development is geared towards making weaponry,
sometimes for export to regimes with bad human rights records. It
would be much more ethical to use the scientific expertise to
accelerate, for example, the development of
environmentally-friendly technologies.”
At the first DSEi in 1999, two separate breaches of the
International Landmines Act were uncovered by journalists. And in
2001, as planes were crashing into the World Trade Centre, 14
different Middle Eastern nations were shopping for weapons at the
Excel Centre, side by side with the US, Israel, Australia and the
UK. While thousands of other events around the world were
cancelled out of respect for the dead, DSEi stayed open and arms
dealers clocked up sales to Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the US,
Colombia, China and Russia.sales to Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia,
the US, Colombia, China and Russia.
Poor human rights record? There are two invitation lists to DSEi,
the official MoD list, which this year includes feuding neighbours
India and Pakistan, Turkey, Russia, and ‘axis of evil’ state
Syria. Then there’s the organisers, Spearhead Ltd.’s, own secret
list, over which the MoD has consultation but ultimately no
control.
Spearhead have invited Afghanistan, Angola, Tanzania, and Israel.
No cash for health and education? Well DSEi has something for
everyone. The whole of next Thursday (11th) is dedicated to a
conference called ‘Making Defence Affordable?’
The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) is stunned: “Following
controversy about the UK licensing a £28million military air
traffic control system to Tanzania, which it neither needs nor can
afford, it is disturbing that Tanzania – one of the very poorest
countries in the world – has been invited to buy yet more arms.”
Martin Hogbin, of CAAT underlines the obvious hypocrisy at work at
DSEi: “If the UK was serious about developing a lasting peace
between Israel and Palestine, we would not promote sales of more
arms into the region.”
Companies exhibiting, alongside weapons giants Lockheed Martin and
BAE, include Bulgarian small arms firm Arsenal Company which is
reported to have sold £5-6 million of arms to Chad and Angola, as
well as supplying arms to Sierra Leone in breach of the UN
embargo. “Many of these companies have been fingered for shipping
arms, sometimes illegally, into regions of terrible conflict like
the Congo” says Hogbin. Others manufacture some of the most brutal
and indiscriminate weapons in the world, including landmines and
cluster bombs. At least two producers of depleted uranium shells
will be exhibiting this year.
In a half-arsed attempt at political correctness, Spearhead have
asked exhibitors not to display cluster bombs at DSEi! According
to UNICEF, more than 1000 children have been injured by cluster
bomblets and other unexploded weapons since the ‘end’ of the war
in Iraq. Of course, cluster bombs can still be bought at DSEi,
just not displayed, and like everything else on sale there they
will not be subject to UK export controls.
In the run up to DSEi activist groups have been targeting
exhibiting UK companies, such as Fluent in Sheffield and Cambridge
Consultants. Two weeks ago Spearhead’s head office in New Malden
was occupied, and on Monday protesters – bound together by arm
tubes – blockaded the gates to the ExCel Centre for five hours,
preventing tanks being delivered to the exhibition. Police used
cutting equipment to remove the tubes and a number of people were
arrested under charges of obstructing the highway.
The police have promised to treat demonstrators “in the same sort
of way as the May Day riots” and have been issued blanket stop and
search laws under the Terrorism Act 2000. That’s obviously because
people protesting about weapons that kill and maim are just bloody
terrorists that need to be stamped on – whereas those poor souls
trying to earn an honest living by selling weapons that kill and
maim – well, they need all the love, affection and money we can
throw at ’em.
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