Human Rights Concerns Fail to Staunch Flow of Uk Arms

The British government is exporting record levels of military equipment to 19 of the 20 states its own ministers and officials have just identified as 'major countries of concern' for human rights abuses.

The 20 countries were listed in the Foreign Office's annual Human Rights Report, which was launched by the Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, last week. They include China, Burma, North Korea, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe.

But the government's arms export records reveal that concerns over human rights appear not to have prevented ministers from approving tens of millions of pounds of military sales to those same regimes.

For instance, on China the report stated: 'The Chinese authorities continue to violate a range of basic human rights. The use of the death penalty remains extensive and non-transparent; torture is widespread.' Yet, despite the existence of a European Union arms embargo, ministers approved strategic export licences - which are needed to sell military items abroad - for China worth almost £70m between July 2005 and June 2006.

According to the UK government's own record of export licences, between January and March this year ministers approved the sale to China of military aero-engines, military communciations equipment and 'technology to build combat aircraft'. It also sold Beijing gun mountings and components for military vehicles, and 'components for nuclear reactors'.

The EU embargo prohibits countries from selling 'whole' weapons such as missile and aircraft, although it does allow the sale of parts.

Other countries whose human rights records concern the Foreign Office, but which still receive arms exports from the UK, include Colombia, Saudi Arabia and Russia, where more than £40m of military equipment was exported last year. On Russia, the Foreign Office report stated: 'Human rights defenders continue to be gravely concerned by actions taken by authorities... The North Caucasus... remains one of Europe's most serious human rights issues.' Yet last year ministers authorised export licences to Russia worth £10m. These included military cargo and utility vehicles, sniper rifles, gun silencers, shotguns, and components for military aircraft navigation equipment.

The analysis of military exports was carried out by Saferworld, the human rights campaign group. Claire Hickson, Saferworld's head of communications, said: 'This once again highlights the incoherence of UK policy which could result in British military equipment being used to commit human rights abuses abroad.'

At the launch of the Human Rights Report, Beckett said: 'This report would set down what we were doing to promote human rights and fundamental freedoms around the world. And it would be something by which the public, the NGO community and the media could hold us as a government to account.'

But Saferworld responded: 'The UK government does little to check what happens to arms exports once they leave the country. There is little way of knowing whether the arms find their way to other users, such as criminal gangs, pariah states, terrorists, paramilitaries or warlords or other rebel forces. A number of these states have reputations as conduits of arms to other irresponsible parties.'

A spokesman for the Foreign Office said that all military exports were rigorously scrutinised on a 'case by case basis' and the British government needs to be reassured that such sales would not be used for internal repression or external aggression.

The Human Rights Report was first published in 1998 by former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, who wanted to promote human rights overseas in line with the new Labour government's 'ethical foreign policy'.