Oxfam attacks UK arms exports
Oxfam has claimed that the UK government is selling arms to countries guilty of human rights abuse.
The Government’s Strategic Export Controls Annual Report 2003 was published on Monday afternoon.
Commenting on the report, Oxfam’s director of policy Justin Forsyth said: “One person dies every minute from armed violence.
“The Government has promised to clean up its act on arms sales but despite some progress they continue to arm human rights abusers across the globe. It’s time the government stuck to its own principles and stopped jeopardising the lives of civilians overseas. “
Oxfam highlights certain statistics from the report, noting that there has been a £50 million rise in the total export value of arms from 2002-03 and that the number of small arms sold overseas has also doubled.
Drawing attention to the fact that there has been significant increases in exports to countries in the front line of the War on Terror, for example to Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Philippines, Mr Forsyth said: “The Government must not allow the war on terror to undermine its arms controls yet further.”
Foreign Office Minister Baroness Symons defended the Government’s record on arms exports.
Baroness Symons said: “This Government introduced the UK’s first ever published arms export licensing criteria and we are leading the global effort to develop common international standards on arms exports.
“Our export controls system is both rigorous and among the most open in the world.”
She highlighted the Export Control Act, which “gives us the power to control UK persons overseas who traffic or broker in arms to embargoed destinations, or in torture equipment or certain long-range missiles to any destination..
“The Government also launched the Transfer Controls Initiative to prevent irresponsible transfers of small arms which might contribute to instability, conflict or repression.”
In 2003, the Government refused 197 Standard Individual Export Licenses (SEIL) citing concerns such as that the items could be used for repression or fall in to the hands of terrorists.
Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman called for a select committee to review the export policy.
Sir Menzies said: “The true test of the legitimacy of these exports is to be found not in their financial value, but whether they conform to the Government’s own published guidelines.
“I still firmly believe that review of arms export policy and monitoring of individual applications of a sensitive nature should be the responsibility of a Select Committee of the House of Commons.”
