UK persists in selling arms to Bahrain, campaign group says

The UK-based Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) has condemned the British government’s efforts to promote weapons exports to the ruling regime of Bahrain despite Manama’s continued brutal crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy protests.

In a press release on its official website on Thursday, the group cited recent meetings between the British officials and members of Bahrain’s royal family with arms sales being on the agenda.

On 25 April, Prince and Royal Guard Commander Sheikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa, visited Counter Terror Expo 2013 in London, seeking the latest technologies to employ against anti-regime demonstrators in the tiny Persian Gulf island.

Last month, the head of British arms sales team from United Kingdom Trade & Investment Defence & Security Organisation (UKTI DSO) Richard Paniguian and Military Attaché Commodore Christopher Murray also met with Bahraini Defence Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Khalifa in Manama to discuss “bilateral military cooperation.”

“In another few months the red carpet will be rolled out for a Bahrain delegation to visit the DSEI arms fair. We should stop selling Bahrain arms and should tell their ruling family they are not welcome in the UK,” said Kaye Stearman from CAAT.

Britain has licensed nearly £13 million worth of weapons to Bahraini regime between 2008 and 2012 to crush peaceful pro-democracy protests.

The Bahraini uprising began in mid-February 2011, when the people started holding massive demonstrations against the Al Khalifa regime, which promptly launched a brutal crackdown on the peaceful protests and called in Saudi-led Arab forces from neighboring states to help quash the revolt.

Dozens of people have been killed in the crackdown, and the security forces have arrested hundreds including doctors and nurses.