Christian peace activist fined for UK arms fair protest

CAAT Lobby of Parliament

Image by londoncaat

Oliver Sprague, an arms control expert from Amnesty International, who gave evidence on behalf of the defence, laid out in detail breeches of export control laws that had taken place at previous DSEI arms fairs and the breeches that took place at the 2011 arms fair. During his evidence Sprague said:

"In my view the breeches of the UK's arms export legistation that took place at DSEI are very serious. The torture equipment and cluster bombs that were promoted at DSEI 2011 and in previous years rate alongside WMD in their seriousness in terms of current UK law in this area."

Chris Cole, from Oxford, said:

"Controls on arms sales have been repeatedly broken and when such controls have been broken, as they were at last year's arms fair and indeed all previous fairs, people have a duty to take action to stop it."

Jessie Normaschild of London Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) who attended the trial said:

"The fine is very steep. Chris provided evidence of continuing regulation breaking at the DSEI arms fair on a far more significant scale than painting some graffiti, and yet the arms fair gets away with repeat breaches. Government support for the arms trade is disgusting, especially when tthey are selling arms at DSEI to governments who actively suppress democratic movements."

ENDS

Notes

1. Chris Cole is a long -term anti-arms trade activist, as well as Convenor of the Drone Campaign Network and the Co-ordinator of Fig Tree, an initiative to engage the Christian community on peace and security issues. In February 2011, he was sentenced to 30 days imprisonment for refusing to pay a £2,000 fine for an act of civil disobedience (painting slogans) at DSEi 2009 - he served 15 days.

2. A short account and details of the judgement and Olly Sprague’s witness statement with all the details of breeches are on Chris Coles' blog - http://figtree101.wordpress.com/

1. Defence & Security Equipment International (formerly Defence Systems & Equipment International), or DSEi, is one of the world's biggest arms fairs and has been held in the ExCel centre in East London's Docklands since 1999. The most recent DSEi arms fair took place in September 2011 - the next is scheduled for September 2013. DSEi receives major financial, logistical and political support from the UK government, most notably through UK Trade & Investment Defence & Security Organisation. Over 25,000 visitors attended and 1,200 companies exhibited tanks, missiles planes, guns, bullets and drones. Cluster bombs and instruments of torture have been repeatedly advertised at DSEi, although they are illegal in international law.

2. The verdict comes just two weeks after the most recent figures, covering October-December 2011, for UK arms export licences were issued by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). They complete the figure for 2011, revealling that during 2011 the UK licenced just under £10 billion worth of "strategic exports" worldwide, including almost £6 billion worth of "military exports".

3. The largest region for sales was the Middle East and North Africa where over over £3.6 billion worth of "strategic exports" were licenced, of which over £1.9 billion was classified as "military exports". Of this amount, over £1.7 billion comprised arms sales to Saudi Arabia. There were also smaller but significant military exports to Bahrain and Egypt, although the government revoked some licences to both countries in February 2011. All three countries were invited to DSEi 2011.