Since 2011 the UK has licensed £65m in arms exports to Egypt, now again run by the army and its rape squads and street-corner torturers. But despite being “on the side of the Egyptian people” according to the Foreign Office, the UK is still inviting Egypt to London’s DSEi Arms Fair. Act now for an embargo on arms to Egypt.
Speaking on Newsnight Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt claimed that the UK government "is on the side of the Egyptian people", and "will engage with all politicians". But in fact the UK has continued to export assault rifles, machine guns, thermal imaging equipment, military communications equipment and components for military combat vehicles and combat helicopters to Egypt. Export licences approved since the fall of Hosni Mubarak in 2011 totalled £65m, as detailed by Campaign Against Arms Trade's export data.
Egypt attended the last biennial London Arms Fair and is expected to come to the next one at the ExCel Centre in London from the 10th to the 13th of September 2013. Since a military coup in July ousted Egypt's first ever democratically elected President Mohamed Morsi, a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood, the army's increasingly violent response to Morsi's supporters has resulted in more than 760 civilian deaths since Wednesday, when the army cleared pro-democracy protest camps.
Egypt's "deputy prime minister", coup leader General Abdel Fatah el-Sisi, has the support of not only Saudi Arabia, anxious about the Muslim Brotherhood's political ambitions, but also Israel, fearing that should the USA declare the military take-over a full-blown coup, President Obama will be forced to cancel Egypt's $1.5bn military aid programme.
Intervention at any level from the UK or USA seems highly unlikely, despite the pronouncements of Alistair Burt. Tell the government that they should show their solidarity with the Egyptian people with actions, not empty words.
Email Foreign Secretary William Hague now: http://www.caat.org.uk/
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