British writer blasts UK's unscrupulous arms-deals

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 23 July 2014, 14:19 GMT]
“The killing fields of Sri Lanka have received all too little attention in the British media, with up to 70,000 Tamil civilians massacred at the end of the 2009 civil war: but this does not serve as a deterrent for British arms sellers,” writes Owen Jones, a British columnist and author in an opinion piece in The Guardian on Wednesday. Further providing examples of states that have had a history of persecuting nations or suppressing basic civil rights, he laments that “our arms trade serves as a reminder that Britain's claim to be a promoter of democracy is a myth.”

Mr Jones authored in 2012 a best-selling book that covered myths around and realities about working-class life in contemporary Britain, titled “Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class”.

A graduate from Oxford, Mr. Jones is also a left-wing political commentator who has written several articles on working class problems in the UK.

In his opinion piece on The Guardian, he blasts his country for its unscrupulous policy in making arms-deals with states that have scant regard for basic civil rights.

“Israel has now killed close to 600 people in Gaza, including 149 children; its land-grabbing settlements place it in violation of international law,” Jones writes further adding that Britain has supplied Israel with parts for sniper rifles, military aircraft, unmanned drones and small arms.

Vladimir Putin of Russia was given cover by Tony Blair as he razed Chechnya to the ground. And Russia still continues to have more than 200 licences in place to consume weapons from the British despite the latest claim by David Cameron that an absolute arms embargo has been put in place, Jones further writes giving a list of other dictatorial regimes receiving arms from the British weapon industry.

Britain's historical support for genocidal Sri Lanka was also the subject of a recent report authored by British activist Phil Miller.

During the genocidal onslaught on Eezham Tamils in 2009, the British Permanent Representative to the UN at that time, Sir John Sawers, stopped any UN Security Council discussion about the crisis. Sawers, 58, has since been the head of Britain's overseas intelligence agency MI6.

External Links:

The Guardian:

Britain will never be a champion of democracy while it sells arms to tyrants

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