UK complicit in Bahraini crackdown

Anne-Marie O'Reilly from Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) gives this update on their work and the situation in Bahrain.

Since the New Year, at least ten people have been killed by security forces in Bahrain. Three died in custody, others suffocated on teargas, which has been fired into people's homes.

The UK continues to arm the kingdom regardless. In Vince Cable's words last week: "We do business with repressive governments and there's no denying that."

See CAAT's interview with Human Rights activist Maryam Al-Khawaja on the situation in Bahrain and take action now.

We are exposing the UK's double standards
On Tuesday, one year after the first protester was shot dead in Bahrain, CAAT campaigners confronted the Business Department with the consequences of its support for repressive regimes. We unfurled a huge list of names of those killed in Bahrain in the last year and with bloodied hands held messages calling on the government to "Promote human rights not weapons".

As Maryam Al-Khawaja put it: "If you're really serious about pushing through... human rights and democracy and respecting citizens, you shouldn't be selling arms to a country that uses them against civilians."

The government needs to be held to account, so the opposition MUST speak up
Labour leader Ed Miliband knows that people care about the destruction UK weapons wreak across the world. He recently restated Labour's concern to "prevent the spread of conflict and ultimately save lives and reduce human rights abuses." However, he has remained very quiet on the UK's role in arming repression.

With your help, last month we reached over 7000 signatures on our petition to end weapons sales to repressive regimes. Please take two minutes now to call on Ed Miliband to push for the UK to stop arming repression.

Thank you for supporting the campaign. Together we can stop the UK arming repression.

visit: http://www.caat.org.uk/

Anne-Marie O'Reilly
Outreach Co-ordinator
Campaign Against Arms Trade

P.S. Book now for a CAAT Campaign Day! Join us in York, Birmingham, Cardiff or London for an action-packed day of training, discussion and planning.