"It's not exactly setting an example to kids, when it's meant to be adults setting the example."
The DSEi biennial arms fair is one of the biggest in the world. It is held in London's Docklands, almost next door to the Royal Docks Community School. Students at the school, in their spare time, made this excellent film about the immorality of the deadly arms trade taking place on their doorstep. A Disarm DSEi protest, calling for the shutting down of the arms fair, has been called by the Campaign Against the Arms Trade and other organisations for 13 September. The table below how the British government supports arms sales to dictators and despots in some of the world's most oppressive regimes.
| Country |
All strategic export licenses |
Total value of military & military/other licences |
Total Military Licenses |
Examples of products sold Q4 2009 to End Q3 2010 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Algeria | 270,262,166 | 270,008,961 | 5 | Combat helicopters |
| Bahrain | 6,361,444 | 3,063,425 | 45 | Aircraft parts; assault rifles; tear gas; ammunition |
| Egypt | 16,804,843 | 4,007,966 | 31 | Bombs, missiles, body armour, |
| Iran | 424,174,977 | 0 | 0 | Non-military such as civil aircraft components, imaging cameras |
| Iraq | 476,555,614 | 4,772,784 | 31 | Body armour, weapon sights, gun parts |
| Israel | 26,733,874 | 4,639,459 | 91 | Armoured plate, gas mask filters, signalling equipment, radar equipment |
| Jordan | 20,972,889 | 11,994,142 | 51 | Armoured vehicles, gun parts, gas mask filters |
| Kuwait | 14,487,907 | 6,473,940 | 38 | Anti-riot shields; patrol boats; military software |
| Lebanon | 6,206,142 | 784,282 | 5 | Body armour; shotguns |
| Libya | 214,846,615 | 33,899,335 | 25 | Ammunition; crowd-control equipment; tear gas |
| Morocco | 2,165,881 | 1,149,102 | 18 | Bomb-making parts; 'swarming' ropes; thermal imaging equipment |
| Oman | 13,986,422 | 9,361,120 | 122 | Combat aircraft parts; parts for unmanned 'drones'; tank parts |
| Qatar | 13,122,884 | 3,875,753 | 22 | Crowd-control ammunition; military cargo vehicles; missile parts |
| Saudi Arabia | 139,718,960 | 64,311,296 | 98 | 4-wheel drive vehicles; armoured personnel carriers, air surveillance equipment |
| Syria | 2,676,460 | 30,000 | 1 | Small arms ammunition |
| Tunisia | 4,504,745 | 131,273 | 10 | Radar equipment; gun parts |
| United Arab Emirates | 210,415,462 | 15,890,384 | 152 | Military software; heavy machine guns; weapon sights |
| Yemen | 285,247 | 160,245 | 4 | Body armour; ammunition |
| TOTAL | 1,864,282,532 | 434,553,467 | 749 | |
Demonstrate against DSEi on 13 September 2011...
