[A-List] UK sub-imperialism: crisis management

["Keaney Michael" <Michael.Keaney@xxxxxx>]

Modified British tanks are used in raids

Anger as Israel violates arms promise

Richard Norton-Taylor and Michael White
Wednesday March 13, 2002
The Guardian

Ministers are demanding an explanation from Israel about its use of
British military equipment in actions against Palestinians in the
occupied territories.

The move comes after Ben Bradshaw, the junior Foreign Office minister,
disclosed that the Israeli armed forces had modified British Centurion
tanks, exported between 1958 and 1970, into armoured personnel carriers.

He told the Labour MP George Galloway that this contradicted a written
assurance from the Israeli government on November 29 2000 that "no
UK-originated equipment nor any UK-originated systems/ sub
systems/components are used as part of the defence force's activities in
the [occupied] territories".

Mr Bradshaw said: "New information has come to light that UK-supplied
equipment licensed for export under a previous administration and a
different export control regime is being used by the Israelis in the
occupied territories".

But he added that there was no evidence that any other British military
equipment sold to Israel had been used against civilians.

The Guardian understands that Britain's defence attache in Israel
recognised that armoured personnel carriers he saw recently had been
adapted from Centurion tanks.

However, Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, yesterday rejected Labour
demands for an arms embargo on Israel. He said it would be unlikely to
produce the desired results.

Saferworld, an independent thinktank, said the evidence of Israeli
misuse of UK equipment highlighted the need for Britain to establish a
comprehensive system for monitoring the use of arms exports. The export
control bill currently in the Lords does not include such a system.

"This case shows again that simply relying on assurances from overseas
governments that they are using British arms exports responsibly is not
enough", its director, Paul Eavis, said. "It is vital to amend the
export control bill and put such a system in place."

Government figures reveal that it approved more than £12m worth of
military equipment for export to Israel in 2000, including demolition
charges, general purpose machine guns, rifles, small arms ammunition,
com ponents for small calibre artillery ammunition, and components for
air-to-surface missiles, armoured fighting vehicles, armoured personnel
carriers, combat aircraft, combat helicopters and tanks.

According to government guidelines, arms exports will be refused "if
there is a clear risk that the intended recipient would use the proposed
export aggressively against another country, or to assert by force a
territorial claim".

Martin Hogbin, national coordinator of the Campaign Against the Arms
Trade, said yesterday that the admission demonstrated the need for more
stringent arms export controls and an immediate embargo on arms sales to
all areas of conflict.

In the Commons, Mr Straw condemned Israel's efforts to "inflict maximum
pain" on Palestinian civilians and urged both sides to return to the
negotiating table. During emotional exchanges, he said: "The terror felt
in Israel is palpable because of the escalating use of suicide bombers.

"I ask the house to understand and appreciate what it would have been
like in this country had the terror from the IRA ... been the terror of
suicide bombs," he said.

Deploring "this hellish confrontation", the Labour MP Gerald Kaufman, an
outspoken critic of the Sharon government, said four times as many
Israelis and Palestinians had been killed in the past year than were
killed in the year before Mr Sharon came to power. But his plea for EU
sanctions on both sides was rejected.

Full article at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,666366,00.html

Michael Keaney
Mercuria Business School
Martinlaaksontie 36
01620 Vantaa
Finland

michael.keaney@xxxxxx