[A-List] UK arms trade: Colombia

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

Private Eye

No. 1060, 9-22 August 2002

In the Back

Ethical Foreign Policy: All Over Bar the Shooting

How to make sense of the latest report on British arms sales to
Colombia, still criticised for its right-wing death squads and the
killing of trades unionists and peasants by paramilitaries backed by the
Colombian army?

According to the UK government's latest arms exports report, military
sales to Colombia have fallen from £2m to "less than £250,000",
suggesting that the foreign office has heeded criticism of weapons sales
to the Colombian army.

But all is not as it seems. Though foreign secretary Jack Straw claims
his report makes Britain "one of the most transparent of arms exporting
states", the report in fact only gives a cash figure for *some* exports.

It does not include, for example, the value of "open" export licences
which allow arms makers to sell unlimited numbers of their products.
While the figure for weapons exports to Colombia may have shrunk, the
number of "open" export licences has actually *increased* from five to
15, so Britain can sell more weapons to the Colombian army while
admitting to smaller sales!

"Open" licences cover friendly stuff like military transport aircraft
parts and aero-engines, large calibre artillery equipment and artillery
computers, toxic chemical precursors and military communications
equipment.