Arms giant BAE Systems was grilled this morning (19 July) by the House of Commons International Development Committee over the methods by which it proposes to pay almost £30 million in “reparations” to the people of Tanzania ordered by the court in December 2010 between the company and the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).

Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) has denounced the process by which BAE Systems, the wrongdoer, is planning to distribute the funds, bypassing the government of Tanzania and disregarding the advice and expertise of the UK’s Department of International Development (DfID).

DFID told the Committee that funds should be distributed in accordance with an agreement between itself and the Tanzanian government, with money spent by schools on teaching materials and improved classroom facilities, including 4.4 million textbooks and 2 million desks, and teacher accommodation. 

The Committee urged BAE to think again on this and distribute the money fully in accordance with the plan before the Committee’s report is completed in early October.

Full press release

The action reflects widespread public revulsion at UK arms sales to despotic regimes in the Middle East and North Africa who have used UK weaponry against peaceful protesters. A recent YouGov poll for the Sunday Times showed that 76% of the British public thought it was wrong to sell arms to Libya.

The petition is part of Campaign Against Arms Trade’s campaign “This is NOT OK” that highlights the government’s promotion of arms sales to repressive regimes and countries in conflict.

There is still time to sign the petition

More info here

Approved arms export licences from the UK also rose over the same period, although not uniformly.

Algeria – £6.9 million in 2009 ; £8.5 million in 2008

Egypt- £16.4 million in 2009 ; £23.4 million in 2008

Libya – £27.4 million in 2009 ; £14.5 million in 2008

Morocco- £1.7 million in 2009 ; £1.8 million in 2008

Tunisia – £5.9 million in 2009 ; £1.6 million in 2008.

Algeria and Libya are identified as priority countries by UK Trade & Investment Defence & Security Organisation (UKTI DSO), the UK government’s arms sales unit. Algeria, Egypt, Libya and Morocco were invited to UK arms fairs Defence Security and Equipment International (DSEi) 2009 and the Farnborough Air Show in July 2010.

More info here: http://bit.ly/eOgTku

The owners of this show are Clarion Events who also own the Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEi) arms fair, a biennial event that takes place in east London, where countries with dubious human rights records are invited to buy the latest weapons. They also own six other arms fairs.

Most visitors won’t know of the link between the The Holiday & Travel Show and the arms trade. London CAAT aims to inform them of this link.

More info:

The Guardian London Graduate Fair, organised jointly with the Careers Group, University of London, is an annual event which provides many students with a valuable opportunity to talk face-to-face with potential employers.

However, this year, BAE Systems – the world’s largest arms producer – were allowed to exhibit at the fair and attempt to recruit graduates. Peaceful anti-BAE protesters, many of whom were students, were forcefully removed by security. BAE is beginning to expect opposition wherever it goes.

Both The Guardian and the Careers Group must refuse to host BAE Systems again.

• The Careers Group, University of London, services students from many educational institutions and states on its website that “as an Exempt Charity, income earned…goes directly to improving and developing services for students of the University of London”. In total its activities bring in over £2.5 million. But students have made clear that they do not want their education or career development funded in any part with money from the arms trade.

• The decision to accept money from BAE Systems undermines the recent efforts of students at various University of London colleges to sever the links between the arms trade and their universities (for instance the Disarm UCL campaign which last year resulted in success for student campaigners when the university announced it would divest from the arms manufacturer Cobham.)

• It also contradicts The Careers Group’s own Code of Practice, which states that it “reserves the right not to advertise vacancies for employment of a nature it deems might be liable to bring the University into disrepute.” Continuing to host BAE Systems – a company which has admitted to poor ethical standards and to charges of false accounting and making misleading statements in relation to allegations of corruption, resulting in a penalty of £30 million in the UK and a $400m (£257m) criminal fine to US – does just this.

We have also written to Guardian News and Media, asking them to exclude BAE from the fair.

It is unacceptable for the careers service of an institution of learning and a newspaper which prides itself on its award-winning investigations into claims of BAE corruption to have any kind of dealings with BAE Systems and to lend legitimacy to its corrupt and damaging practices.

We call on both parties to publicly refuse to allow BAE to exhibit at future Graduate Fairs.

Signed (all in a personal capacity)

Michael Chessum, UCL Union Education and Campaigns Officer
Greg Brown, UCL Union Environment and Ethics Officer
Charlotte Gerada, LSE Students’ Union General Secretary
Ashok Kumar, LSE Students’ Union Education Officer
Hero Austin, LSE Students’ Union Community and Welfare Officer
Elly Badcock, SOAS Union Secretary and NUS Women’s Committee
Sebilio Lillo, SOAS Union Finance & Communications Co-President
Jasper Kain, SOAS Union Sports & Societies Co-President
Bindz Patel, Goldsmiths Students’ Union President
James Haywood, Goldsmiths Students’ Union Campaigns & Communications Officer
Sean Rillo Raczka, Birkbeck SU Chair & NUS NEC Mature Students Officer
Tami Peterson, Birkbeck SU AR-AF Officer & NUS LGBT committee
Clare Solomon, University of London Students’ Union President
Maham Hashmi, NUS Black Students Committee
Natasha Wynarczyk
Emilie Tapping

and Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT)

20 December, 9.30am-10.30am
Southwark Crown Court, 1 English Grounds (off Battlebridge Lane), SE1 2HU (on the south side of the river between Tower Bridge and London Bridge)

BAE, arms supplier to some of the world’s most despicable regimes, will be in court on 20 December. The hearing, scheduled for 10am, is expected to rubber stamp a derisory settlement of £30 million to end years of investigations by the Serious Fraud Office. These involved allegations of corrupt payments made in Austria, Chile, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Tanzania totalling over £1billion.

The investigation regarding Saudi Arabia was dropped after the intervention of then Prime Minister Tony Blair. Earlier this year, the Serious Fraud Office agreed BAE could buy its way out of trouble with the rest. In return for pleading guilty to “accounting irregularities” in its deals with Tanzania, it would end all its investigations into BAE’s activities. It looks like BAE will once again escape real sanctions for corruption in its deadly deals. The settlement may mean that details of the investigations are kept from public scrutiny.

But the judge has the power to challenge the settlement. Join us outside the court to make our message loud and clear: Don’t let BAE get away with paying peanuts!

Please let us know if you’re planning on coming: outreach@caat.org.uk

Prince Andrew serves as a “Trade Ambassador” for UK Trade & Investment, which among other activities, is responsible for promoting British arms exports through its Defence & Security Organisation (UKTI DSO).

Kaye Stearman of Campaign Against Arms Trade said:

It is wrong that UKTI is promoting weapons sales and wrong that Prince Andrew is seen to be supporting arms sales and accepting corruption.This report shows that the relationship seems to go even deeper, with Prince Andrew speaking out against a government agency attempting to investigate corruption and arms deals. He should resign from his UKTI role immediately.

More

University careers fairs across the UK have seen demonstrations by anti-arms trade protesters in recent weeks as student activists oppose the recruitment efforts of companies like BAE Systems, the world’s largest arms producer.

The wave of recent actions at graduate recruitment fairs in Bristol, Edinburgh, London, Southampton and Exeter saw campaigners staging ‘die-in’ protests in front of BAE’s stalls and being forcefully removed by security staff.  Key successes have been; the closure of the careers fair at Edinburgh, disruption of BAE presentations, a turn out of 50 students at Exeter University, a forthcoming discussion at Southampton University on arms companies on campus and we now know that BAE are having to shell out money for extra security at recruitment events.

Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) are encouraging students to continue demonstrating everywhere that arms traders attempts to recruit –  this week students are expected to protest at Oxford University and Kent Universities Careers Fair.

CAAT group has compiled a list for students of 40 careers events this term where BAE or other arms traders will have a presence on various university campuses, including events at universities in Bath, Brighton, Bristol, Canterbury, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Exeter, Hertfordshire, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle, Northhampton, Nottingham, Oxford, Portsmouth, Sheffield, Swansea and York.  Click here to see when one or more arms companies could be recruiting on your campus.

BAE Systems has been dogged for years by persistent allegations of bribery and investigated by the Serious Fraud Office for corruption, is keen to recruit university graduates, especially in engineering and sciences. Each year they spend thousands of pounds on recruiting staff to research, design, build, market and sell the next generation of killing equipment.

CAAT’s new Ban BAE campaign is designed to complement the clean investment campaign – calling for universities to divest from the arms trade for ethical reasons – and ultimately aims to sever the links between education and the arms trade entirely.

CONTACTS

For further information on the Ban BAE Campaign please contact Abi Haque, CAAT’s Universities’ Network Co-ordinator on universities@caat.org.uk or ring 020 7281 0297.
For information on CAAT please contact CAAT Media Co-ordinator Kaye Stearman via press@caat.org.uk or ring 020 7281 0297 or 07990 673 232.

NOTES

1. Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) works for the reduction and ultimate abolition of the international arms trade together with progressive demilitarisation within arms producing countries. Around 80% of CAAT’s funding comes from individual supporters and CAAT is strictly non-violent in all its work.

2. CAAT has released a new action guide for students and activists, Disrupting Arms Company Recruitment, available to download from CAAT’s website, together with a BAE Counter-Recruitment Campaign Pack. Further information on the campaign and the Universities Network is available here. CAAT has compiled an initial list of dates when BAE is visiting universities which is available here. This is not a comprehensive list – check with your university careers service if your university isn’t listed.

3. According to the Stockholm International Peace Institute (SIPRI), BAE Systems is the world’s largest arms producer. It sells arms to countries the UK Foreign Office’s Human Rights report classes as “major countries of concern”. Notable customers include Israel, Pakistan and Indonesia, while its foremost overseas markets are Saudi Arabia and the United States. In February 2010 BAE agreed to plead guilty to “accounting irregularities” in a 1999 sale of radar equipment to Tanzania and was fined £30 million, while being simultaneously fined $400 million by the US Department of Justice for conspiring to defraud the US and for making false statements under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Two weeks after the launch of Campaign Against the Arms Trade’s new Ban BAE counter-recruitment campaign, students and anti-arms trade activists kicked off the academic year by taking over a BAE recruitment presentation and staging a die-in at their stall.

The action took place at the Guardian’s busy Graduate Fair held at the Business Design Centre in north London and saw 15 young people, including students, CND supporters and Quakers, making a strong but peaceful statement against the unethical activities of BAE – the world’s largest arms producer.

There was heavy handed treatment of the protesters by the security services at the event, activist Anna Clark was dragged away by her arms, while at least one other protester was pulled by the feet. It seems as if the security at the fair were expecting protests against BAE, in the afternoon the stall area opposite BAE was occupied not by an exhibiting employer, but two security guards keeping watch.

BAE Systems sells arms to countries the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Human Rights report classes as “major countries of concern”. Notable customers include Israel, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Indonesia. BAE arms sales in several countries have been investigated by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and allegations of corruption have dogged the company for years. In March 2010 BAE agreed to pay a $400 million criminal fine to the US Department of Justice.

The company is keen to recruit university graduates, especially in engineering and sciences. Each year they spend thousands of pounds on recruiting staff to research, design, build, market and sell the next generation of killing equipment.

But students are increasingly voicing their distaste for the promotion of careers in the in the arms industry by supposedly ethical organisations, like universities and The Guardian. CAAT has identified over 40 careers events in October and November 2010 where BAE or other arms companies will be present. Student activists are being urged to ensure that BAE is met with campus protests every time it participates in career fairs or other recruitment events.

Hannah Brock, a Quaker, explained, “I was glad to do something public in support of a campaign that makes people contemplate who they give their skills to”.

Hilary Aked, who interrupted the presentation, told Ekklesia that she was motivated by her recent work in Palestine. She pointed out that BAE sell weapons parts to Israeli forces.

“I can see for myself the effects of Israeli military actions, having just returned from Palestine,” she explained, “They’re using expensive military equipment to violently suppress peaceful protests”.

Abi Haque, CAAT Universities’ Network Co-ordinator says:

“We significantly disrupted the BAE presentation and stall. It was encouraging to see how many students were receptive to our message about BAE and the unethical career choices they offer to graduates. We hope that The Guardian, which has done so much to expose BAE’s shady activities, will exclude BAE from future Graduate Fairs.”

*For further information on the Ban BAE Campaign please visit CAAT Universities Network micro-site.

*For questions concerning the CAAT Universities network universities@caat.org.uk“>email Abi Haque, CAAT’s Universities’ Network Co-ordinator or call 020 7281 0297.

*For information on CAAT please press@caat.org.uk“>email CAAT Media Co-ordinator Kaye Stearman or ring 020 7281 0297 / 07990 673 232.

Links:

Youtube video of Ban BAE protest at the Guardian Graduate Fair

Ekklesia article available at http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/13375

Abi Haque, CAAT Universities’ Network Co-ordinator says:

Education and arms companies should not mix. CAAT aims to widen the gap between universities and the arms trade. Previous student actions have been hugely successful, as well as very entertaining. Last year these ran from confiscating promotional materials and removing displays, to die-ins and and grim reapers looming over stalls. We expect this year to be equally interesting.

For full press release and contact details see: http://www.caat.org.uk/press/recent.php?url=20101005prs