- Welsh government are planning to attend the controversial London arms fair DSEI again this year, after being criticised for having a stand there in 2019
- Countries present at the event include Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Colombia, who also feature on the UK Government’s Human Rights Watch list
- Peace and anti-war activists have hit out at Welsh government for attending the fair while simultaneously claiming to be committed to human rights and promoting peace
- “More civilians will die in Yemen as a result of the deals done at DSEI,” Peace group tells voice.
Image via Number 10 on Flickr
The Welsh government has decided to attend a controversial London arms fair again this year, where advanced weapons are marketed for use by some of the world’s worst regimes for human rights abuses. The Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) event in London – which is also supported by the UK government’s Ministry of Defence – is held every two years.
In 2019, six companies were supported to join the Welsh government’s stand at the DSEI fair. The government came under heavy criticism back then, with First Minister Mark Drakeford saying he would review his government’s presence at future events.
After the 2019 event, the First Minister originally said the Welsh government’s presence at the arms fair was “to support important Welsh companies that operate, not directly in the arms area, but in other issues, such as cyber security”.
However, BBC reported that since this comment, the Welsh government has confirmed that Radnor Range, a weapons and explosives testing range, was one of the companies on its stand. A Freedom of Information response from the Declassified UK website also revealed that the Welsh government spent £85,350 on the DSEI 2019 event itself and £9,851.28 on expenses for 12 officials.
This year the Welsh government has chosen to pay for Aerospace Forum Wales to “lead Wales’ presence”, rather than have their own stand, though their presence at the event has not gone unnoticed. The forum describes itself as the “trade association for all companies operating in the aerospace, defence and space sectors in Wales”.
Welsh government say they attended the fair to show support for companies “with a presence in Wales such as Airbus, Thales, General Dynamics, Jacobs and Qinetiq” and told the BBC that officials will be “engaging with companies looking to invest in Wales and will be meeting a number of SMEs [Small and medium-sized enterprises] regarding investment, innovation and job creation opportunities.”
According to the event website, “DSEI 2021 will welcome exhibitors from the entire defence and security supply chain, from Primes/OEMs to Tier 3 manufacturers.” While some companies at the fair are focused on cyber defence, others operate outside of the digital sphere.
Welsh Government has faced fierce criticism for returning to the fair.
“When the Welsh government appeared at the last DSEI, Mark Drakeford promised to review their presence there,” says Symon Hill of the Peace Pledge Union (PPU), a non party-political organisation. “I am sad and angry to see that they have turned up again, as well as funding Aerospace Wales to be part of this foul event.”
He said that the Welsh Government’s support for the London arms fair “stands in sharp contrast to the many people who have travelled from Wales to join in protests and nonviolent direct action at the event.”
“They draw on Wales’ proud history of peace activism and nonviolent resistance to injustice.”
The UK’s Tory government has invited 62 countries to the arms fair, including the likes of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Colombia. This week, as the UK and Welsh governments mingle with representatives and ministers from these countries, they will also continue to condemn their human rights abuses.
“The Welsh Government’s international strategy laudably stated that Wales is ‘committed to human rights and promoting peace‘, but how can we square that with queuing up to deal in weapons at an arms fair?” argues Ed Bridges, also an activist with PPU in Cardiff and a member of their elected Council.
“It sends completely the wrong message for Wales to send representatives to this event where they will be brushing shoulders with human rights abusers seeking to trade in death and misery.”
The UK government’s own extensive 2019 report on Human Rights & Democracy details that, in Saudi Arabia, “The use of the death penalty increased in 2019, and included the execution of 37 men on a single day.” They also mention the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and “the overall clampdown on civil and political space.”
It is no secret that the UK government is the second biggest supplier of arms to the Saudis, whose coalition began military intervening in Yemen in March 2015, and has since carried out more than 20,000 air strikes on the country, causing the deaths of over 18,500 civilians.
“More civilians will die in Yemen as a result of the deals done at DSEI this week between arms dealers and Saudi Arabia,” says Symon Hill of PPU. “We cannot believe for a moment that the majority of Welsh people want to be part of this.”
The UK has continued to place arms before Yemeni lives, and sold $1.88bn worth of arms – including missiles and bombs – to Saudi Arabia between July and September 2020 according to figures released by the Department of International Trade earlier this year. Even when the U.S. issued a temporary freeze on pending arms sales in a so-called bid to bring the war in Yemen to an end, the UK continued to authorise sales.
While defence and national security falls under the UK government’s reserved powers and are not devolved to Wales, the Welsh government has also come under criticism previously for allowing the training of Saudi air force pilots in Wales. More than 100 Saudi pilots have been trained at RAF bases in the UK over the past decade, with many based at RAF Valley on the Isle of Anglesey, North Wales.
In August 2020, plans to develop a new military training site in north-west Wales were put on hold after widespread opposition and outrage over the likelihood of Llanbedr Airfield being used to train Saudi pilots involved in the bombing of Yemen.
Activists have also hit out at the fact that Welsh Government are attending the fair whilst Mark Drakeford considers himself a proud internationalist.
The Stop the War coalition drew attention to the First Minister’s silence on the plight of Palestinians, despite thousands marching in Cardiff over the summer against Israel’s killing of over 250 Palestinians in 2021 and its programme of ethnic cleansing. This is “shameful” Stop the War say, but the government’s attendance at this year’s DSEI – where weapons are marketed to Israel – is “shameless”.
According to the Stop the War coalition, “For over 20 years Welsh Government has built links between Wales and arms industries – selling it as job creation.”
“London Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan has called for the world’s largest arms fair to get out of London. Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell marched against the Liverpool Arms Fair. Why won’t Mark Drakeford do the same?” the group said.
A Welsh government spokesperson defended the government’s presence at the event, writing that the companies present “are a major part of Wales aerospace, cyber security and defence sectors which has a collective value of at least £4bn and employs more than 18,000 people in Wales.”
The Stop the War coalition say Wales needs “to beat swords into ploughshares.” They reference the 1970s visionary trade unionists from Lucas Aerospace (now BAE systems) who produced detailed plans to build road rail buses, kidney machines and renewable energy systems instead of weapons.
Similarly, the Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) has an “Arms to Renewables” campaign which argues that high-skilled manufacturing jobs – which governments claim are essential to the UK’s economic prosperity – could be shifted to “green jobs” that would be both highly skilled and beneficial for society, and would form part of the fight against climate change, which poses a major threat if advice from climate scientists is not heeded.
“The skills and commitment of workers in the arms industry could be better deployed to tackle the real threats we face: the climate emergency, the risk of further pandemics, the horrors of poverty,” says Symon Hill of PPU.
It’s also important to note that the Welsh government previously declared a ‘climate emergency’. Climate change can be both a catalyst and a consequence of conflict – from competition over resources, to the vast quantities of fuel used in intense conflicts, which can generate huge amounts of co2 emissions and knock-on effects such as air and soil pollution.
The arms fair is due to be met with fierce resistance on the streets. In Liverpool last weekend, thousands protested against the planned arms fair in the city, which is due to take place on 13th October. The actor Maxine Peake and former Labour leader, and friend of Mark Drakeford, Jeremy Corbyn addressed the huge crowd.
When crowds gather outside the event in London, the Welsh Labour leader will have to choose which side he is on.
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