Heckler and Koch is the world’s second largest manufacturer of handguns, assault rifles, submachine guns, machine guns and grenade launchers (1). Millions of H&K weapons are currently in use in over 90 countries, falling into the hands of child soldiers in Africa, terrorists in the Middle East, militias in Darfur, rebels in Nigeria, arms traffickers in the Philippines, mercenaries in Iraq and organised criminals in Serbia. Heckler & Koch weapons have been used by armed forces in conflicts in which those forces have been accused by international monitors of war crimes, including Bosnia in 1991, South Ossetia in 2008 and Sri Lanka in 2009. In total, H&K weapons are estimated to have caused 1.5 million deaths worldwide to date.

Heckler and Koch’s office in Nottingham is responsible for ‘international customer sales and customer services’ for non-NATO countries. There is evidence to suggest that Heckler And Koch have used the UK to make and sell weapons to countries that it has been prohibited from selling to by the German government due to concerns over repression and human rights abuses, including Nigeria, Kenya, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Lebanon and Georgia. Those who flee the suffering and conflict caused by these weapons often seek refuge and asylum in countries such as the UK, to be met with violent and oppressive border regimes and immigration systems that force them to return against their will to the countries they fled from.

The office in Easter Park in Lenton has been a target for the Shut Down H&K campaign for over a year. The campaign was established by local residents in 2008 who were outraged at the presence of such an unethical company in their city, and has been holding monthly demonstrations and pickets outside the offices and in the market square to raise awareness and protest against the company’s unethical activity. In December 2009, the campaign sent an open letter to the company asking for information regarding Heckler and Koch’s recent activities, but is yet to receive a reply (2). It is due to this lack of response from the company that the campaign feels today’s activities are necessary in order to place further pressure on the company.

Notes for the editor:
(1) Heckler and Koch are a German company with offices in the UK, France and the US. Sources for the information presented here are available on request. For more information regarding the sale of Heckler and Koch guns to repressive regimes, conflict zones, and human rights abusers, please see recent posts on the campaign’s website (address given above).
(2) A copy of the letter can be found here: http://www.shutdownhk.org.uk/an-open-letter-to-heckler-koch/

While the acceptance of guilt in relation to Tanzania is welcome, the investigations related to other countries including South Africa and the Czech Republic were far more significant. SFO investigations of deals with several countries were continuing up until today, and only last week the SFO charged a former BAE agent with corruption in relation to deals with several European countries.

The SFO settlement was announced in conjunction with the US Department of Justice whose fine concerned BAE’s deals with Saudi Arabia. While the combined fine is more significant, the UK penalty of £30 million is a tiny price for BAE to pay to see the end of the investigations that had been gathering evidence for years and were coming to a head.

Kaye Stearman, spokesperson for CAAT, says:

“CAAT is outraged and angry that the allegations about BAE will not be aired in a criminal court and that the Serious Fraud Office has accepted a plea bargain relating only to the smallest deal. After the Government stopped the SFO’s inquiry into the company’s Saudi deals, it was even more important the truth about its dealings in central and eastern Europe and Africa was made public. One day a former BAE agent appears in court charged with corruption, the next BAE is let off for an accounting misdemeanour.”

Nicholas Hildyard for The Corner House says:

“Given BAE’s admission of guilt today in the US concerning the Al-Yamamah contract, the UK should re-open its own Saudi Arabian investigation immediately. The company’s admission obviously calls into question its repeated denials of any wrong doing. Far from drawing a line under the allegations, today’s announcement simply raises far more questions and creates yet further demands for justice.”

Background

In December 2006 the SFO dropped its corruption investigations into BAE’s arms sales to Saudi Arabia, following pressure from BAE and the Saudi regime and a direct intervention from then Prime Minister Tony Blair. The decision was subject to severe criticism and prompted CAAT and The Corner House to launch a Judicial Review of the decision. In April 2008, the High Court ruled that the SFO Director had acted unlawfully by stopping the investigation – a decision subsequently overturned by the House of Lords.

The SFO began drawing up the legal papers for the recommended prosecution against BAE on 1 October 2009, following its six-year investigation into alleged bribery in BAE arms deals with several other countries (Chile, Czech Republic, Qatar, Romania, South Africa and Tanzania). BAE is alleged to have paid bribes, often in the form of commissions to “advisers” on the deals, to clinch the sales.

On 29 January 2010, the SFO charged Count Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly with conspiracy to corrupt in connection with BAE’s deals with eastern and central European governments including the Czech Republic, Hungary and Austria. On 4 February he appeared in Westminster Magistrates Court where he was released on bail under conditions. The next day the SFO dropped all charges “in the public interest” and Mensdorff-Pouilly left the UK.

For further information or an interview please contact:
Kaye Stearman of CAAT, on 020 7281 0297 or 07990 673 232
or Nicholas Hildyard of The Corner House on 01258 473795

On Tuesday 2nd February 2010 in London, there will be a discussion of the growing anti-militarist movements in Latin America, featuring activists Pelao Carvallo, a Chilean living in Paraguay, and Rafael Uzcategui from Venezuela. This event will be presented by War Resisters’ International and hosted at Housmans radical bookshop, and will be conducted in English and Spanish, with interpreters.

Housmans has been selling radical books for fifty years, and is one of the last remaining radical bookshops in London. The biggest threat to independent bookshops is Amazon, which imposes poor conditions on its workers, and whose near-monopoly allows it to squeeze small publishers. Housmans recently launched its own online bookshop, with half a million titles, to provide an ethical alternative to Amazon.

The event will begin at 19:00, and the address is 5 Caledonian Rd, London N1 9DX (nearest tube King’s Cross).

For three weeks in January 2009, the bombs rained down on Gaza. At the end of Israel’s brutal bombing campaign and ground offensive over 1400 Palestinians had been murdered, including 314 children.

In Brighton EDO MBM/ITT manufacture some of the weapons components that devastated so many lives. All over the world thousands of people watched appalled at the carnage on the streets of Gaza. Thousands marched and raged at the destruction of peoples’ homes and lives. On January 18th 2010, the anniversary of the final day of Operation Cast Lead, we will come together to remember the people of Gaza.

We will not allow those who supported their pain and profited from their suffering to go unchallenged. We will not let this genocide be forgotten. On the first anniversary after their deaths, we will rise up. We will take to the streets. We will remember…

Assemble at 1pm, wear black…

More details, including the meeting place, will be published here closer to the date.

Anti-militarist magazine Peace News will be hosting a national gathering of campaigners and activists in Nottingham this winter.

People from across the spectrum of the British peace movement will come together for a weekend of exploration, celebration and empowerment – learning from other movements, struggling with challenging issues, and creating greater cohesion and solidarity in a segmented peace movement.

The gathering will be held at the Sumac Centre in January, from the evening of Friday 15th until the afternoon of Sunday 17th. It will be followed by a mass non-violent direct action against a local arms company on the morning of Monday 18th.

Highlights will include:

• Reports from the Gaza Freedom March
• Building for the February blockade at Aldermaston
• Activism workshops with Seeds for Change
• No Borders report on recent immigrant solidarity campaigning in Calais
• George Farebrother on law, peace and applying pressure
• Afghanistan: Strategies to end the war
• Anti-war art, with Peace News co-editor Emily Johns
• Radical climate change activism after Copenhagen

The full schedule for the weekend will be made available on the Peace News Gathering website as soon as it is finalised.

BOOKING

The cost of attending the gathering is £10-£40 per person for the weekend (not including food – see below). You can book now, either online or by sending a cheque payable to “Peace News” to Peace News Winter Gathering, 5 Caledonian Road, London N1 9DY. You will be sent a full programme.

FOOD

Food will be provided on the Saturday and Sunday by Nottingham’s own vegan catering campaign Veggies, priced £4-£6 per day. It’s best to pay for food in advance, which you can do the same way as booking (above). Remember to specify which days you want food for.

ACCOMMODATION

Crash-pad accommodation is available nearby. If you need a bed or family space, contact Peace News on +442072783344.

ABOUT THE GATHERING

Peace News Winter Gathering 2010 has developed out of Peace News Summer Camp 2009, which created a real sense of liberation for participants. The Gathering is a space of mutual respect in which activists from different groups and movements, who hold diverse views on fundamental issues, can share experiences, information and insights – and can learn more about each other.

THE ACTION

A non-violent action against a local company will take place at 10:00 on Monday (18 January). This will be organised by participants in the Gathering at a meeting on the Sunday. Participants will be able to choose arrestable or non-arrestable roles.

The target of the action will be one of the companies on the Notts Map of Militarism. Those who miss the planning meeting can learn the details of the action by calling +447929123314 on the Monday morning.

For more information about the Peace News Winter Gathering, visit the official website.

Arms company Heckler & Koch has been in the news this week. It seems that H&K, whose international sales office is located in Nottingham, is still in the business of arming regimes that are well known to commit gross violations of human rights. Notts Anti-Militarism looks at three examples from around the world.

Manipur, India

Victims of police violence: a pregnant woman and an unarmed suspect, executed in a crowded market in Manipur, July 2009.

Ever since the state of Manipur was annexed by India in 1949, there has been armed conflict between separatists and the Indian government. In 1958 the Indian government passed the notorious Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA), which gives military personnel powers to arrest or kill anyone they want within a so-called “disturbed” area.

The state of Manipur was declared a “disturbed” area, and was heavily militarised, with land across the state being confiscated to set up army camps. There followed decades of grievous human rights abuses, with Indian police and paramilitaries inflicting beatings, rapes, torture, forced labour, disappearances and extrajudicial killings, all the while protected from prosecution by the AFSPA.

Here’s one example: In 2004, Indian troops raided the home of a 32-year old woman called Manorama Devi, whom they suspected to belong to a separatist group. They arrested her and took her away. Her bullet-riddled corpse was found the next day outside a nearby village. She had been tortured and raped, and then shot in her vagina at close range.

Far from quashing the insurgency, this brutal repression has only made it worse. The government’s solution? Buy better guns! And this is where Heckler & Koch comes in. A senior police official has revealed that Manipur police commandos will soon be equipped with 1000 Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine guns, at a cost of around £850000.

Heckler & Koch cannot be unaware of the gross human rights abuses of its latest customers. The situation in Manipur has been documented for many years. However, that would not appear to be an impediment to business.

The Philippines

To discover the connection between Heckler & Koch and the worst ever atrocity against journalists, we have to go to South-East Asia and the Philippines. This archipelago nation has a terrible human rights record, with state security forces practising vigilantism, arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

Filipino soldiers armed with modern Heckler & Koch G36 assault rifles.

The Philippines has also been one of H&K’s best customers. Over the years the Filipino police and military have been equipped with a variety of H&K assault rifles, sniper rifles and submachine guns.

The endemic corruption of the Filipino security forces provides one of the many routes by which H&K weapons flow from the legal arms trade to the black market. Last year, several high-ranking military and police officials were arrested for taking 72 H&K submachine guns from a police depot and selling them to a Taiwanese-led gunrunning syndicate.

The President of the Philippines is Gloria Arroyo. Until very recently, her chief ally in the south of the country was the Ampatuan clan, which ruled province of Maguindanao. The Ampatuans delivered many votes for Arroyo in the 2004 and 2007 General Elections, which were marred by widespread fraud and violence. In return, the Arroyo administration tolerated the Ampatuan clan’s internecine chainsaw murders.

The scene of the Ampatuan massacre

On 3rd November 2009, local politician Esmael Mangudadatu sent his wife, accompanied by a convoy of journalists, to file his intention to run for governor against the Ampatuans. The convoy was stopped by police and Ampatuan militiamen, and everyone in it was abducted and killed. Several of the women were raped and then shot in the vagina. More than 30 journalists were slaughtered, making this the deadliest recorded attack on journalists.

In the aftermath of the massacre, an arms cache was discovered next to the mansion of the Ampatuan regional governor. Among the weapons recovered was a Heckler & Koch HK11 machine gun.

Once again, there can be no way that Heckler & Koch is unaware of the state-sponsored violence and corruption in the Philippines. And yet the company has continued to arm the regime with the latest in assault weapons.

The US Marine Corps

During the US-led “War on Terror”, the US Marines have committed numerous war crimes and serious abuses of human rights. Among those that have come to light:

US Marine with H&K submachine gun

• During the 2004 offensives against the Iraqi city of Fallujah, US Marine snipers deliberately shot civilians and medical personnel and vehicles, killing thousands. The Marines’ tactical siege and destruction of the city amounted to collective punishment, which is a war crime.
• In November 2005, a US Marine unit went on a rampage in the Iraqi town of Haditha, using guns and grenades to slaughter 24 unarmed Iraqi civilians including women, children and old people. When interviewed, US Iraq war veterans described such acts as common, and said they often go unreported and almost always go unpunished. The Marines are responsible for similar massacres in Afghanistan.
• There has been widespread torture and abuse of detainees by US Marines in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo. Documented abuses include beatings, electrocution, burning, sexual abuse and mock executions.

Of course, none of this matters to Heckler & Koch, which stands to profit a great deal from the Marine Corps. H&K already supplies the Marines with submachine guns, and it was announced this week that H&K is almost certain to win a contract to supply the Corps with thousands of state-of-the-art automatic rifles in a deal worth millions of dollars.

Conclusion

In one week, three separate news stories have illustrated how forces that are well known to commit serious human rights abuses, war crimes and crimes against humanity are continuing to be armed with modern Heckler & Koch weapons.

These are only the latest examples in a disgraceful history of arming the world’s oppressors. If there is one lesson to be learned from 60 years of Heckler & Koch, it is that the company should not be allowed to reach 61. It should be shut down and its employees held to account for the abuses that they have knowingly profited from.

There is a campaign against Heckler & Koch based in Nottingham called Shut Down H&K. There have been monthly pickets at the company’s Nottingham warehouse since May 2008.

The campaign opposes the activities of Brimar, a Manchester-based company which makes military components used by the British and American armies in Iraq and Afghanistan and by Israeli forces in Palestine and Lebanon, and which have also been sold to other militaries around the world.

Although the company stresses the ’situational awareness’ and defensive role of many of the items it manufactures, it also contributes parts to F16 fighters, Apache attack helicopters and Javelin missiles and lists ‘target acquisition systems’ for ground-launched missiles amongst its products.

In sunny weather the demonstration – which included generations of Manchester residents, from babies to veteran peace campaigners – started peacefully and in good spirits. Meeting at the Gardeners Arms roundabout in Moston, it proceeded along the Greengate to the industrial estate where Brimar’s factory is sited, where food and a children’s play area had been set up. The procession included Critical Mass cyclists, banners and music.

Unfortunately, during the talks and music which followed, Oldham Police chose to abuse their power by arresting three co-defendants from the Edo Decommissioners trial who were present to show their support for the Target Brimar campaign. The three were arrested for allegedly breaching draconian bail conditions which specify that various co-defendants are not allowed to communicate with one another. Witnesses at the demonstration stressed that the three had deliberately not been communicating with one another and were appalled to see that being in the same geographical area was regarded by Oldham Police as grounds to haul them away, threatening other people with arrest when they tried to intervene.

The Target Brimar demonstration continued after the arrests and wound up early to allow supporters to head to Oldham police station to offer solidarity to the arrested three.

The Target Brimar campaign would also like to express its solidarity and respect for the Edo Decommissioners and their principled action in January this year in carrying out an accountable action which destroyed up to £300,000 worth of equipment used by Edo in Brighton to produce weapons components involved in massive human rights abuses in Palestine, Pakistan and other conflict zones.

At the time of writing, supporters at Oldham police station have been informed that the three will be taken to Brighton for a hearing next week (w/c 19th October 2009) but that the time of their transportation is in the hands, not of Oldham Police, but of the private Group 4 security company.

For more information on the Edo Decommissioners trial, see http://decommissioners.co.uk/

For more information on future Target Brimar campaign plans, see http://www.targetbrimar.org.uk

See here for more info (will be updated closer to the gathering with more info so check regularly)

Brimar is a Greater Manchester based company that manufactures a range of screens and viewing equipment, including specialist cathode ray tubes. Although Brimar makes some equipment and components for civilian uses, it has come to mainly specialise in military devices.

Brimar’s devices are found in fighter planes, attack helicopters, tanks, armoured missile launchers.

We are calling for a national demonstration to launch the Target Brimar campaign. This will be on Saturday 17th October at noon.

We are a group of citizens from Manchester and Greater Manchester. We believe that Brimar’s products have been, and may still be, used to commit war crimes in various conflicts in the Middlle East and elsewhere.

In tanks and other armoured vehicles, Brimar’s screen and display equipment allow the occupants to see what’s going on outside and to aim weaponry at targets. In aircraft, components made by Brimar are used in ‘head-up’, ‘head-down’ and helmet-mounted displays, used to aim and fire weapons.

With products in a wide range of military machinery it is no surprise that Brimar’s devices have been in use in many wars and conflicts across the globe.

Israeli Apache helicopter pilots in Gaza, US marines in tanks in Fallujah, British Apache pilots in Afghanistan, and US fighter pilots over Iraq all aim and fire their deadly weaponry with display equipment made at Brimar’s factory in Chadderton.

We are a group of citizens from Manchester and Greater Manchester. We believe that Brimar’s products have been, and may still be, used to commit war crimes in various conflicts in the Middlle East and elsewhere.

We are preparing and organising a concerted campaign against Brimar. We want Brimar to cease producing parts for military use and to revert to the peaceful purposes for which many of the company’s products have been made.

We are calling for a national demonstration to launch the Target Brimar campaign. This will be on Saturday 17th October at noon. This demonstration is also in solidarity with the EDO Decommissioners, whose trial begins on the 26th October.

The meeting point is the grassy traffic island by the Gardener’s Arms pub, at the junction of the B6393 (Lightbowne Rd) and the A6104 (Victoria Avenue East).

Click here for a map
[The traffic island is the grassy area to the right of the 'A' at the end of Moston Lane].

Check back for more details and for updates to to our website… www.targetbrimar.org.uk

To get in touch, email us: info[AT]targetbrimar.org.uk
To subscribe to updates on the Brimar campaign, send an email with ’subscribe’ in the subject line to announce-subscribe [at] targetbrimar.org.uk
or join us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=123955974338&ref=nf

They are calling for a mass demo to try and shut down NATO on Friday the 13th of November, the first day of the assembly.