Documents show Britain sold arms to Sri Lanka while expressing shock over human rights violations

timesofindia

While David Cameron faces awkward questions in India over bribe-tained British-built helicopters, the prime minister is in a fresh storm over another set of defence deals involving Lanka's war on Tamils. Government records, revealed by activists in London, show that UK has been supplying weapons - both small and large, worth "millions of pounds" to the Sri Lankan government even though Britain's foreign office (FO) has in the recent past expressed concern over human rights violations by the island nation. Britain's foreign office calls Sri Lanka "a country of concern" with questionable human rights records. However the UK based NGO Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) has sent documents to TOI showing that between July and September 2012, Cameron's government approved export licences on military items to Sri Lanka worth over £3 million. Nearly £2m of the sales were in the category "ML1" label denoting small arms. In total, the UK government approved the sale of 600 assault rifles, 650 rifles, 100 pistols and 50 combat shotguns. The sale also included £330,000-worth of ammunition and £655,000 in body armour. A consignment of arms worth £1.16 million (pistols, assault rifles and combat shot guns) was sent to Sri Lanka on August 21, 2012, body armour and rifles worth £ 505,000 sent on August 22, direct viewing imaging equipments and small arms worth £699,000 on July 19 and ammunition for small arms worth £578,000 on August 6. A consignment of assault rifles and body armour was sent from UK to Sri Lanka on September 20 worth £50,000 while on August 24, another consignment worth £60,000 which included military assault rifles was shipped to Sri Lanka. Kaye Stearman from the CAAT told TOI, "There were no licence refusals in these months, despite concerns being raised about human rights in Sri Lanka. The total amount is a large increase, given that from the beginning of 2008 until June 2012 the value of export licences to Sri Lanka amount to £12 million. A note in the government data says that some of these weapons were to be used in anti-piracy operations." "We're told that the arms industry is essential for jobs and the economy. In the UK, the government uses grossly inflated and out of date jobs figures. We're told that we need to export arms for our national security. Yet the UK sold weapons to Argentina weeks before the Falklands War. It sold arms to Saddam Hussein months before the First Gulf War. It actively courted Gaddafi weeks before going to war with him last year," the group said.