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Bahrain’s First Major Arms Fair, Brought To You by British Organizers

Bahrain’s First Major Arms Fair, Brought To You by British Organizers
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Accusations of human rights abuses in Bahrain were ignored on Monday, as the first international arms fair in the kingdom opened its doors.

Bahrain’s First Major Arms Fair, Brought To You by British Organizers

The Bahrain International Defense Exhibition and Conference [BIDEC] 2017, which runs over three days, is being organized by British company Clarion Events.

The company also organizes the Defense and Security Equipment International arms fair held biannually in London, and which the city's mayor, Sadiq Khan, has called to be banned.

The event was condemned by human rights activists, who challenge Bahrain's years-long, violent campaign against dissent and protests against the government.

"The UK public do not want our taxes to be spent promoting weapons sales to Bahrain and the other human-rights abusing regimes attending BIDEC," echoed the Campaign Against Arms Trade, in a statement.

"The UK's promotion of arms exports at BIDEC will be seen as a show of support for the Bahraini regime. As well as jailing and torturing human rights and pro-democracy activists, the government of Bahrain is part of the coalition currently bombarding Yemen, leaving millions of Yemenis on the edge of starvation and at risk of cholera."

For his part, labor's would-be minister for peace, Fabian Hamilton, has told MEE that were the opposition party elected, arms sales to Bahrain would be immediately suspended.

"We should not be selling weapons to any state that uses, or could potentially use, weapons we supply for internal repression or for foreign wars," the MP said.

The UK has sold at least $85m of arms to Bahrain between 2000 and 2016, according to data from the Stockholm international Peace Research Institute.

From June 2016 to June 2017, Bahrain's government arrested, tortured, threatened or banned from travel at least 169 activists and opponents or their relatives, an Amnesty report said.

"The most common tactic used by the authorities has been the judicial harassment of human-rights defenders and other peaceful critics, by way of relentlessly summoning them for interrogation, before either charging or releasing them," it said.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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