The Tories have invited countries they admit are abusing human rights to a global arms fair

The Tory-led UK government has revealed that it invited eight countries it considers to be human rights abusers to the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) arms fair at the ExCeL centre in London. Accordingly, people have been protesting – making their objections to these death dealers clear.

DSEI: protests continue

The Canary has been covering this year’s DSEI. As we previously reported:

It’s a huge arms fair that hosts over 2,800 companies profiting from death, destruction, and surveillance. DSEI happens every two years – and so do the protests to it. Stop The Arms Fair (STAF) has been organising resistance. So far, it’s held a peace walk, a workshop on removing militarisation from education, and a ‘policing and prisons’ day

Then, on Monday 11 September, protests took place outside BAE Systems – one of the most notorious arms companies on the planet:

“War Starts Here”: Quakers and friends outside BAE Systems, the UK’s largest arms dealer and massive supplier to Saudi Arabia, more than £23 billion in warplanes and other military products since the start of the Yemen conflict 8 years ago. @Quakers_RoR #StopDSEI pic.twitter.com/gDXESpgH8W

— CAAT (@CAATuk) September 11, 2023

There was also a poster campaign, spreading information:

Posters have appeared explaining the disastrous effect of this week’s DSEI arms fair and the weapons sales that come from it. The first highlights the impact over the eight years of the war in Yemen, the second discusses weapons sales to human rights abusers. #StopDSEI pic.twitter.com/xyFOJ3BIPA

— CAAT (@CAATuk) September 11, 2023

Activists then held a vigil to remember all the victims of war:

Quakers join ⁦@paxchristiEW⁩ and people of all faiths and none in silent witness at the gates of the huge DSEI arms fair in solidarity with all victims of war
⁦@StopTheArmsFair⁩ pic.twitter.com/wmfrV2eeyV

— Quaker Roots: resisting the arms trade (@Quakers_RoR) September 11, 2023

On the fair’s opening day, Tuesday 12 September, protesters made sure that the arms dealers attending couldn’t miss the resistance to them and their industry:

Arms dealers arriving at #StopDSEI are being funnelled through a gauntlet of protesters. They have blood on their hands and we’re reminding them of the reality of their deadly trade. #DSEI23 pic.twitter.com/xdKF3foojv

— CAAT (@CAATuk) September 12, 2023

As an “arms dealer” carrying her arms arrives, a campaigner holds a banner saying, “Blood on your hands”. In the background, DSEI arms fair delegates look nervously for the entrance. #StopDSEI @StopTheArmsFair pic.twitter.com/EPuHWkgs0w

— CAAT (@CAATuk) September 12, 2023

As arms dealers arrive, Quakers and friends meet at the gate of theDSEI arms fair to share words of people from around the world who’s lives have been devastated by the arms trade

⁦@StopTheArmsFair⁩ ⁦@PPUtoday⁩ ⁦@paxchristiEW⁩ pic.twitter.com/pRdD1vRKEP

— Quaker Roots: resisting the arms trade (@Quakers_RoR) September 12, 2023

The Tories courting human rights abusers

Meanwhile, also on 12 September, the Tory government published a list of countries it had invited to the arms fair. Unsurprisingly, eight states are on the UK government’s own list of ‘human rights priority’ countries:

• Bangladesh
• Colombia
• Egypt
• Iraq
• Pakistan
• Saudi Arabia
• Turkmenistan
• Uzbekistan

So, as part of the protests against DSEI, people have been demonstrating outside the UK Defence and Security Exports office:

Campaigners are getting set up on the corner of Whitehall and Charing Cross pic.twitter.com/Ulh5xMuQye

— CAAT (@CAATuk) September 13, 2023

Campaigners are outside UK Defence and Security Exports this morning telling passers-by about the DSEI arms fair and the role of UKDSE in promoting arms sales #StopDSEI – with @PeaceKingston @vfpuk & Movement for the Abolition of War pic.twitter.com/KChKDklMvx

— CAAT (@CAATuk) September 13, 2023

Of course, the UK government’s definition of a human-rights-abusing state is itself entirely inadequate. Other notorious countries attending DSEI but who don’t make the government watch-list include:

• Bahrain, which has only just been removed from the government’s human rights priority list.
• Turkey, despite the government listing it as a ‘prolific perpetrator of transnational repression’, where it reaches “across national borders to coerce, intimidate, harass or harm perceived critics overseas”. Moreover, the Turkish state systematically abuses the rights of the minority Kurdish population.
• Israel – human rights groups like Amnesty and Human Rights Watch have labelled Israel an apartheid state due to its abuse of Palestinian people in Gaza and the Occupied Territories.

As the Canary previously reported, over 40 Israeli arms companies have stands at this year’s DSEI. Independent media outlet Declassified UK managed to get into DSEI. It found the Israel’s Ministry of Defense had its own stand:

Israel's Ministry of Defence has been welcomed to London to flog its arms.

Here's its stand inside the #DSEI23 arms fair, which is sponsored by the UK Ministry of Defence. pic.twitter.com/5hiU35z9Wh

— Declassified UK (@declassifiedUK) September 12, 2023

‘Utter disdain for human rights’

Campaign Against the Arms Trade’s (CAAT’s) media coordinator – and former Canary editor – Emily Apple said in a statement:

The list of countries invited to this year’s DSEI shows this government’s utter disdain for human rights around the world. These invited delegates will be wined and dined and encouraged to buy yet more weapons to wage wars across their borders and to repress their civilian populations at home. It makes a mockery of the Foreign Office publishing a list of human rights priority countries when the same government pulls out all the stops to sell them as many arms as possible.

DSEI is a marketplace in death and destruction. It has nothing to do with peace and security, and only exists to maximise the profits of arms dealers.

The UK government’s willingness to invite human rights-abusing states to DSEI raises huge questions about how we function as a country. So, with just a few days left of DSEI, protests are set to continue at the ExCeL centre and beyond.

Feature image via CAAT