Sheep magazine Archive 2: issues 10-17

deliberately hit. The coalition has opened investigations into a number
of incidents and has repeatedly claimed in statements that the coalition
‘is committed to full respect for international humanitarian law in the
conduct of our operations in Yemen’.
A joint analysis conducted by the Independent and Campaign Against
the Arms Trade found £10bn in arms licences were issued 2010-2015 to
regimes designated ‘unfree’ by Freedom House, including China, Oman,
Turkmenistan and United Arab Emirates.
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Meanwhile £7.9bn worth of arms were sold to countries on the ‘human
rights priority countries’ list, which is maintained by the Foreign Office and
includes countries judged by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office to have
‘the worst, or greatest number of, human rights violations’.
Customers on this list included Saudi Arabia, which was sold bombs,
missiles, and fighter jets, Israel, which was sold drone components and
targeting equipment, and Bahrain, which was sold machine guns.
Assault rifles and pistols were sent to the Maldives, while Turkmenistan was
sold guns and ammunition.
Andrew Smith of Campaign Against Arms Trade warned that the
dependence of British exporters on unsavory regimes could make
the UK less likely to intervene against human rights violators.
“These terrible figures expose the hypocrisy at the heart of UK foreign policy.
The government is always telling us that it acts to promote human rights
Artwork: G.M. Payne
SHEEP IN THE ROAD : NUMBER 15