UK violating own law by selling arms to Saudis: Activist

Press TV has interviewed Symon Hill, with the Campaign Against Arms Trade from London, on Britain’s selling weapons to Saudi Arabia, while the kingdom has been accused of violating human rights at least in Yemen.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: What do we understand from the United Kingdom’s arms business with the Saudis? Looks like human rights plays second fiddle to company profits.

Hill: Well, it’s certainly the case that the UK government has for a long time been very hypocritical about human rights, selling weapons to regimes that abuse human rights, while at the same time appearing to criticize them.

And the British people have never really supported the arms trade. There’s a lot evidence the majority of people oppose arms exports when those arms will be used against innocent people.

And this isn’t about who’s right or who’s wrong. So, for example the Campaign Against Arms Trade, we are not on Iran side or on Saudi Arabia side, we are on the side of human rights.

But because Saudi Arabia we see so many weapons from the UK government and UK arms industry, it’s that area we’re focusing on and saying the British government are breaking their own laws by selling weapons to a regime that is using them against innocent civilians in Yemen, in Bahrain and potentially in Saudi Arabia itself, these protests which have broken out there.

Press TV: Would you think this legal action is going to get anywhere?

Hill: Well, I certainly think it will, for one thing it will make the issue much more of a life-political issue in the UK, because UK government just relies on this not being talked about that much.

Where it’s getting into the courts, getting the legal action out there, using what legal address we can, mean to become much more of an issue that people are talking about.

But also what we want to do, not to go to court and say the British law, it’s not just an international law, the British law says the arms should not be exported when they can or are likely to be used to promote repression or aggression.

So, and that clearly happened in the hands of Saudi Arabia, but we want to see the British courts say the British government is acting unlawfully selling weapons to regimes that abuse human rights and particularly Saudi Arabia.

Press TV: We know that civilians have been slaughtered in Yemen 7400 killed, you mentioned, borrowing yourself. If it’s not serving peace, what is it serving then?

Hill: Well, what it is serving is the interests of the British establishment, the British arms companies and their bosses are very close to the establishment in Britain. The former British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said that the chairman of arms company BAE Systems metaphorically had the keys to the door to Number 10 Downing Street prime minister’s house.

That’s how influential these arms companies are. So, it’s also a point here about democracy. Saying yes, we care about democracy in Saudi Arabia, we care about democracy in Iran or in Palestine that’s why we comment on human rights abuses in all those countries. We also care about democracy in Britain that we shouldn’t have arms dealers influencing government’s policy more than the British people do.

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