DSEI weapons fair: authoritarian regimes descend on London

Authoritarian regimes including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and Azerbaijan are among the official guests invited by the UK government to one of the world’s largest arms bazaars, opening in London’s Docklands this week.

The biennial weapons fair, which opens on Tuesday, is the focus of an increasingly heated debate between those who say major weapons producers such as Britain cannot claim at the same time to defend human rights, and those who say the arms industry provides tens of thousands of jobs and valuable exports.

This year’s Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) exhibition coincides with a government drive to increase arms sales to countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, by far its most lucrative single market for weapons.

Britain demonstrated its support for Saudi Arabia this summer by delivering a consignment of 500lb Paveway IV bombs originally earmarked for the RAF. Saudi Arabia’s fleet of strike aircraft includes British Tornados, Eurofighter Typhoons and US F-15s.

“The UK is digging into its own weapons supplies to replenish Saudi stocks,” Michael Stephens, of the Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), told the BBC.

Saudi airstrikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen are backed by a UN security council resolution, but the UN’s top humanitarian official in the country, Johannes van der Klaauw, said attacks on civilian infrastructure were violations of the laws of war.

Separately, last week the European parliament urged the Azerbaijan government to “immediately end its crackdown on civil society and human rights work”.

Algeria, Angola, Colombia, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Pakistan, Turkey, the UAE and Ukraine are also among the 61 countries invited to the arms fair. Israel is not an official guest, but the country’s arms industry will have pavilions there.

Russia has not been invited this year, because of sanctions imposed by the west as a result of its military intervention in eastern Ukraine.

More than 1,500 companies will exhibit their wares, including the US and UK giants Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon and BAE Systems, and there will be 40 foreign government pavilions.

Amnesty International launched a spoof torture equipment advertising campaign on Monday to coincide with the event.

At past London arms fairs, campaigners have discovered a variety of illegal torture equipment advertised for sale, including electric shock stun guns and batons, leg-irons, and belly, body and gang-chains.

There has also been a range of illegal cluster-munition weaponry advertised, Amnesty said. It said it had identified nine companies that had violated UK law at DSEI events between 2005 and 2013.

Many products on show this year are designed to protect people from lethal force. They include self-inflating body armour and non-lethal boat-stopping systems developed by the Cardiff firm BCB International, an immersion suit said to dramatically increase mariners’ chances of survival by guaranteeing 25 hours of protection in Arctic waters, and an executive bulletproof briefcase that becomes a ballistic shield when opened.

British arms exports are worth about £7bn a year, and the industry says it employs about 350,000 people. Campaign against the Arms Trade says the figure includes about 100,000 people employed only indirectly in the arms trade, for example by providing services and managing the defence estate.