Despite long-running concerns among activists over Bahrain's human rights record, British firms were last year granted licences, unopposed, to export an arsenal of sometimes deadly crowd control weapons. Licences approved included exactly the kind of weapons and ammunition used by Bahraini riot police to clear the Pearl Roundabout protest encampment, including shotguns, teargas canisters, "crowd control ammunition" and stun grenades…
Sales to both Bahrain and Libya were actively promoted by the UK government's arms promotion unit, the UK Trade & Investment Defence & Security Organisation. (The Guardian).
How on earth is this still an issue? It is utterly despicable. What person in their right mind is ok with this? There are no good reasons for allowing let alone encouraging arms exports to dictators. We cannot be surprised when these weapons are later used against civilians.
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