Exclusive:
Government database shows that sales continue despite litany of rights abuses
Jerome Taylor | Monday 18
February 2013
Britain
is selling millions of pounds worth of small arms and ammunition to Sri Lanka
despite the country’s dire human rights record, The Independent can disclose today.
Figures
taken from the Government’s own database show how the authorities in Colombo have
gone on a buying spree of British small arms and weaponry worth at least £3m.
Some
of the items sold to Sri Lanka include pistols, rifles, assault rifles, body
armour and combat shotguns – despite the Foreign Office still classifying the
South Asian nation as a “country of concern” for rights abuses.
The
sales indicate how far President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s government has been
welcomed back into the international fold by Britain, despite the behaviour of
his armed forces during the brutal last few months of the 2009 civil war.
The
conflict was the culmination of a 30-year conflict with violent Tamil Tiger
separatists and resulted in the deaths of between 60,000 and 100,000 people
over a four-month period, most of whom were civilians.
Both
sides were accused of human rights abuses and although the Sri Lankan
government won a comprehensive victory against the Tigers, it has since
resisted international calls for an independent investigation into
well-documented allegations that Sri Lankan Army soldiers were involved in
rape, torture, extra-judicial killings and the deliberate targeting of
civilians.
The
figures on Britain’s most recent arms sales come from the Government’s own
Export Controls Organisation, which releases quarterly figures. They reveal
that in the three months between July and September last year, the UK approved
export licences worth £3.741m, of which just over £3m were military items.
More
than £2m of the sales came under the “ML1” label – a category used by the
Government to denote small arms and weapons. Export licences were granted on
four separate occasions – once in July and three times in August. In total the
Government approved the sale of 600 assault rifles, 650 rifles, 100 pistols and
50 combat shotguns. The sales also included £330,000-worth of ammunition and
£655,000 in body armour.
It
is not clear whether the sales are a one-off or represent a significant
increase in British weaponry heading to Sri Lanka. From the beginning of 2008
to June 2012, the value of export licences to Sri Lanka amounted to just £12m.
Nonetheless
there were no licence refusals in the third quarter of last year, despite
concerns being raised about human rights in Sri Lanka. At the time, judges in
the High Court were granting a slew of last-minute injunctions to stop the
Government forcibly deporting failed Tamil asylum seekers due to clear evidence
that some of them risked being tortured on their return.
Human
Rights Watch, Freedom from Torture and Tamils Against Genocide have documented
at least 40 cases where Tamils who were returned to Sri Lanka from European
nations in the past two years have been tortured during interrogation by the
Sri Lankan authorities.
The
rush of sales came just a month after President Rajapaksa was welcomed to
Britain alongside fellow Commonwealth leaders to attend the Queen’s Jubilee
celebrations in June. Although the trip involved no declared business deals, Mr
Rajapaksa was photographed shaking hands with the Queen at a lunch for
Commonwealth leaders.
His
presence there sparked mass protests by British Tamils who were incensed that
Mr Rajapaksa – whose brother Gotabhaya was in charge of the Sri Lankan army
during the 2009 war – was being so publicly rehabilitated.
A
spokesperson for UK Trade and Investment insisted that Britain has some of the
most stringent export regulation in the world when it comes to arms.
But
Kaye Stearman, from the Campaign Against Arms Trade, said: “Given Sri Lanka’s
shameful military record and its continuing abuse of human rights, it seems
extraordinary that the Government has approved these export licences for small
arms and ammunition. In 2011-12, not a single licence application for these
items was refused, even though the Foreign Office lists Sri Lanka as a ‘country
of concern’ for its human rights record.”
Suren
Surend-iran, from the Global Tamil Forum, a group based outside Sri Lanka that
lobbies for Tamil independence, added: “The Coalition has a lot to answer
[for], when especially the recent Foreign Affairs Select Committee report
highlights the appalling status of the human rights situation in Sri Lanka.”
The
final destination of the small arms is not known – but a footnote in the
Government’s data suggests some of it may have been intended for “maritime
anti-piracy” measures. Sri Lanka is fast turning itself into an anti-piracy
hub, centred around the south-western port of Galle where many ex-navy and army
servicemen who fought against the Tamil Tigers are making themselves available
for security details on international shipping routes heading towards the
pirate-infested waters off the Horn of Africa.
Anti-piracy
measures could also include the Sri Lankan Navy, which has a controversial
track record especially when it comes to firing on Indian fishermen from the
southern state of Tamil Nadu. Over the past few decades hundreds of Indian
Tamil fishermen have been shot and killed by Sri Lankans after they have
inadvertently or deliberately strayed into their waters.
Earlier
this month, 12 Indian fishermen claimed they were thrashed with sticks by Sri
Lankan Navy personnel while fishing near Katchatheevu, an islet ceded by India
to its neighbour. The Sri Lankan High Commission did not respond to calls to
comment on the sales.
Ms
Stearman said researchers have increasingly seen anti-piracy measures being
used by the Government to justify arms sales but that the final destination for
such weapons is often ambiguous. “Since the licence end-user is not listed, and
the notes are often worded ambiguously, we don’t know which weapons are
intended for this use,” she said.
“Given
that Sri Lanka is now establishing itself as an anti-piracy centre, with
operations staffed by ex-military personnel, there must be questions about who the
weapons go to, how they are used, and where they end up. This is an area where
greater transparency is badly needed.”
Sri Lanka: A year of human rights abuses
February 2012 Ramasamy Prabaharan, a Tamil businessman who
brought a case against the police for torture and unlawful detention, is
abducted days before he is due to give evidence. He is the latest victim of
what Sri Lankans call "white van abductions".
March Amnesty International details how hundreds of
mainly Tamil people are detained without charge, more than three years after
the civil war.
June A British High Court judge grants the first of
many last-minute injunctions halting the deportation of failed Tamil asylum
seekers after hearing evidence that more than 30 people have been tortured after
being deported to Sri Lanka from Western Europe.
July Sunday Leader editor Frederica Jansz is
directly threatened by the President's brother, the Defence Secretary,
Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, over an article she published on his use of private jets.
Jansz's predecessor, Lasantha Wickramatunga, was killed in 2009.
October Senior High Court judge Manjula Tilakaratne is
attacked and injured by armed assailants after he complains of attempts to
interfere with the independence of the judiciary.
November Eleven prisoners are shot dead by the country's
feared Special Task Force in disputed circumstances.
February 2013 British-Sri Lankan journalist Faraz Shauketaly
is shot in the neck by unknown assailants. He survives the attack and is being
treated in hospital.
