UK sold rifles to Gaddafi ahead of Revolution

The British government, now vigorously hunting for Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, had increased the sale of sniper rifles to the fugitive dictator weeks before uprising began in the country, a report says.

The documents found by the Sunday Telegraph reveals that last December, the British ambassador to Libya, openly persuaded the Libyan officials at the army to visit Britain to see the military equipments, such as rifles and machine guns.

The Libyan envoy responsible for buying weapons for Gaddafi regime, was then hosted in Britain by Major General Jonathan Shaw, the Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff at the Ministry of Defence and Richard Northern, UK top diplomat in Tripoli.

The British guns were to be used only weeks later by pro-Gaddafi forces to kill anti-regime protesters and inhabitants in towns that joined the revolution.

Gaddafi shooters killed thousands of people through firing the British sniper rifles and machine guns from the rooftops in the crisis-hit cities including Benghazi, Misrata and other areas, as the revolution began in February extend to the Libyan capital. According to the figures issued by the country’s temporary health ministry, over 30,000 people have been killed and 50,000 injured during the war.

The new revelation, showing the amount of collaboration between the British officials with the Libyan regime, will be regarded as a fresh stain on Britain’s reputation as the government yet seeks to supply military equipments to suppressive regimes.

The news follows allegations last week that the British intelligence co-operated with the Libyan officials in rendition of Gaddafi’s opponents back to their country, where they faced severe torture. They included Abdel Hakim Belhadj, now the leader of revolutionary forces in Tripoli, and Sami Saadi, former deputy leader of the Libya Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), whose family were also jailed after being illegally transferred to Libya.

The arms documents found in Britain’s ruined embassy in Tripoli revealed a close relationship between Gaddafi armed forces, British government, and its weapons firms. The correlation had grown after former Prime Minister Tony Blair met Gaddafi in 2004 and 2007.

The document showed that British weapons manufacturer attended the Libdex arms fair held at Tripoli’s International airport to persuade the Libyan regime to buy British equipments.

The covering note from the embassy stated that two UK arms firms were eager to host a visit to Britain by Libyan officials.

“With reference to the recent office call by the British Ambassador HE Richard Northern and the UK Ministry of defence, Assistant Chief of the Defence Staff, Gen Shaw, the British Embassy is pleased to respond on the points raised: Sniper 50 Calibre. Two qualified manufacturers, Accuracy International and Manroy Engineering, would be ready to host an inward visit to UK by an LAF team. This visit would be subject to the usual UK inwards protocol clearance and can be arranged through this embassy,” the note read.

The document also contained two letters, one from Glyn Bottomley managing head of Manroy Engineering, asking Maj Gen Al Sayd to visit the company in Beckley, East Sussex.

“Following the great success of the Libdex 2010 show we would like to invite yourself and relevant members of your staff to travel to the UK and visit Manroy Engineering so that we can demonstrate to yourself and your staff our products. This will include the full range of sniper weapons that were on show at the Libdex Show along with our other products that include our range of UK MOD machine guns,” the letter read.

The second letter from Unionlet in Hayes, west London, invited the Libyan team of army tender to visit the Portsmouth factory of arms manufacturer Accuracy International. “This will give your team the opportunity of seeing the full manufacturing process as well as the ability to test the weapons systems that are of interest.”

The two companies defended their attempts to sell sniper rifles and machine guns to Gaddafi regime, insisting Libya was a favoured regime with the UK government, and Tony Blair went there to boost the military contracts.