UK sells killing tech to brutal regimes

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/192700.html

Despite being condemned by the world anti-war campaigns for arming the repressive regimes with crowd control weapons, Britain will display the latest killing technologies by hosting the biggest arms fair.

The British government has yet taken one more measure to demonstrate its great interest in supplying the world's suppressive regimes with the latest weapons to stop the nation-wide pro-democracy protests. The world will again witness the shock of what happened when Britain and other western powers armed the repressive powers.

British government has reportedly demonstrated its enthusiasm in promoting arms exports to depots in the volatile and mostly oil-rich regions. As the UK has extensively dealt with Saudi Arabia since 1980s, the Al-Yamamah deal is considered as the largest one in the region. Additionally, the country has also established long-term military ties with other authoritarian states, namely Jordan, Bahrain, and Oman.

North Africa was among the newest areas for UK government to export its weapons. UK Trade & Investment Defense & Security Organization regarded oil-rich states of Algeria and Libya as their priority markets in the region. Accordingly, the famous Tony Blair's deal in the desert with Muammar Gaddafi in 2003 paved the way for even further deals that were crucial to London, including deals in oil, construction, and arms.

Prime Minister David Cameron has continued to support the sale of British weapons to other countries in the region, after Mubarak regime collapsed in Egypt, Cameron was in Cairo with a group of British arms dealers, as the biggest ever UK delegation to an international arms fair displayed its weapons in Abu Dhabi.

Meanwhile London is to host the world's biggest arms fair, Defense & Security Equipment International (DSEi), on 13-16 September at the ExCeL centre in East London's Docklands. The fair holds every two years in London, this year more than 1200 arms companies will exhibit their deadly products to 25,000 buyers from across the world, including repressive and human rights abusing regimes.

Stop the Arms Fair, Stop the War Coalition and Disarm DSEi have called on the anti-war activists to protest against the UK government's war policies on 13 September.

Expressing their oppositions to the world's largest arms fair, the anti-war protesters are to ask the government why it has subsidized DSEi by £320,000 and spent £4 million for its policing since the British nationals have been crippled by the harsh spending cuts imposed by the Tory-led government.

The anti-war campaigns insisted that the Con/ Lib Dem government has employed austerity measures on the public services, jobs, education, health, and environment, but has ignored arms trade.