British guns killing Libyans

The UK government was forced to revoke six arms export licences issued to European countries in a bid to stop its military equipment reaching Libya, Gulf News can exclusively reveal. Since the beginning of the Libyan uprising, Muammar Gaddafi has used force against his people and, if at all European arms have been directed at the masses, that's in contravention of EU arms trade rules. UK arms export licences have either been issued directly to Libya or via other European countries. The revoked licences were issued to France, Belgium, Denmark and Italy. Military goods destined for these member states were to be incorporated into other items and then re-exported to Libya. "There have been a number of cases where licences have been revoked because the circumstances in Libya have changed, whether the export went directly from the UK to Libya or whether it was shipped via another member state," a UK government spokesperson told Gulf News from London. Alistair Burt, the Foreign Office minister, previously announced that more than 50 direct licences for Bahrain and Libya had been revoked. UK-exported items possibly sent to these countries via France include "sniper rifles" and "tear gas/irritant ammunition". Similarly, the UK issued export licences to Italy for items including "technology for the development of exploding grenade ammunition", "semi-automatic pistols", "assault rifles" and "technology for the development of smoke ammunition", which could have then been re-exported to Morocco and Libya. "Although the UK is to be credited for revoking export licences to… Libya… the fact is that many of these licences should never have been issued in the first place," Thomas Donnelly, UK Advocacy Coordinator, Saferworld, said. Inconsequential action "In the face of recent events, this is somewhat a case of shutting the door after the horse has bolted", acting too late to make any kind of significant difference, he added. According to the Department for Business Innovation & Skills (BIS), Italy, France and the Netherlands received licences between July 1 and September 30 which allow re-exports to the Middle East. However, a question-mark hangs over the final destination of the arms, as the report does not confirm to which countries items will be re-exported. Military equipment is only shown as "ultimately destined for all or some of the following" including Middle East and North Africa (Mena) countries Libya, Morocco and Tunisia. The EU imposed a complete arms trade embargo on Libya on Monday, freezing Gaddafi's assets at the same time. Despite the measures, the UK has been trading with Libya since 2007 after the EU-imposed arms embargo was lifted in 2004; nonetheless, UK arms export licences generally take two to six weeks to process and last for two to five years. The UK government spokesperson added that military equipment used in "destinations of concern" is monitored by UK Overseas Posts using media, non-governmental organisation (NGO) or intelligence reports "These sources have standing instructions to report misuse of UK-origin defence equipment. But, the government's position remains that the best means of ensuring that goods are not diverted — through our rigorous assessment at the licence application stage," the spokesperson said.