France, England halt arms sales to Bahrain, Libya

[ellenrr]

Pro-democracy protests in Bahrain and Libya have forced Britain and France to stop providing the two Arab countries with some security equipment.


Alistair Burt, Britain's minister for the Middle East and North Africa, said on Friday that his country had decided to cancel 44 export contracts with Bahrain and eight others with Libya as dozens of people have lost their lives during clashes with security forces in the two Arab states, AFP reported.

Burt says the government will not resume exports of riot control equipment, including tear gas and rubber bullets, to the countries "where we judge there is a clear risk that the proposed export might provoke or prolong regional or internal conflicts, or which might be used to facilitate internal repression."

The British government has been accused of providing "tools of repression" for Arab regimes while they are cracking down on pro-democracy demonstrations.

Burt, however, pointed out that the government had "no evidence of British equipment being used in the unrest in Bahrain."

France also said that it had decided to halt exports of security equipment to Bahrain and Libya.

"Authorizations for the export of security equipment bound for Bahrain and Libya were suspended yesterday," French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.

The British Foreign Office and the Campaign Against the Arms Trade revealed that Britain has supplied the Bahraini government with several crowd control products such as "CS hand grenades, demolition charges, smoke canisters and thunder flashes."

The revelation confirms that Britain sold "tear gas, irritant ammunition, crowd control ammunition, small arms ammunition and ammunition for wall-and-door-breaching projectile launchers" to Libya, along with combat helicopters and military utility helicopters" to Algeria.

The development came as waves of pro-democracy protests are spreading across the Middle East after the collapses of the regimes in Tunisia and Egypt.

Rights groups say the death toll from Thursday's clashes between protesters and security forces in Libya reached 84 amid other reports that suggested dozens more were killed on Friday.

Rights groups say there is a rising death toll from clashes between anti-government protesters and security forces in Libya.

The regime of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi blocked websites and cut off electricity in some areas in an attempt to control anti-government protests.

In Bahrain, the military, armed with machine guns, opened fire on pro-democracy protesters trying to march into the center of the capital Manama on Friday, injuring at least 66.

Four pro-democracy protesters were killed and 231 others injured when riot police raided the protest camp in the early hours of Thursday, while most of the demonstrators were sleeping, in an attempt to clear capital's main square of demonstrators.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/165941.html

[Catherina]

1. Rec'd. n/t

[applegrove]

2. It is pretty sick that they were selling stuff to Gadhafi in the first place.