Ministers gave the green light for dubious arms sales to Libya as a favour to Colonel Gaddafi's regime, it was claimed last night. The Foreign Office approved the sale of armoured cars and water cannon to Libya in 2007, at the same time as negotiations were under way with Libya over the fate of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Al Megrahi.
British police were even sent to Libya to show their counterparts how to use the equiptment. Critics charged last night that ministers bent international rules which ban the sale of weapons for internal repression to curry favcour with Tripoli, and then covered up the deal. Details of the shady arrangement will fuel suspicion that Gordon Brown's Government ran a covert campaign to court the Libyan dictator, culminating with the recent release of Megrahi.
Justice secretary Jack Strawadmitted at the weekend that he decided to include Megrahi in a prisoner transfer agreement with Libya the same year in order to protect trade deals, including a BP oil contract.The 'armoured all-wheel-drive vehicles' and water cannon were among 12 military contracts with Libya worth £5million granted export licences by the Government in 2007. the deals wee struck by private companies, which are not named in the export documents because of commercial confidentiality, but they had to be signed off by the Foreign Office. Britains own export rules and the EU code of conduct mean military equipment may not be sold to countries where it might be usd to suppress dissent.
But Labour ministers approved the sale of the riot control equipment jut one year after Libyan riot police had killed 11 people in the city of Benghazi. In July 2008 the Commons Committee on Arms Exports Controls voiced grave concerns about the sale, bearing in mind Libya's poor record on human rights. But when the MPs demanded to know why the deal was done, the Government stonewalled. The Foreign Office said it would reply privately to the committee. But 15 months later Parliament has had no answer.
A report on arms exports signed by four Cabinet ministers, including Foreign Secretary Davcid Miliband and Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, published last month, admits the equipment could have been misused. Last night an official on the Arms Exports Committee said it would be writing to Mr Miliband to demand answers.
Kaye Stearman of the Campaign Against Arms Trade said: "It's certainly disturbing to hear the details of these deals and more disturbing still that the facts are being concealed from the public." Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague called for a public inquiry into Britains links with Libya. He said: "Arms exports controls are designed to protect fundamental human rights principles. Relaxing the rules to accommodate Libya in this case is wrong and the Government must explain to Parliament why this has happened." A Foreign Office spokesman denied that arms export rules were broken but did not say why ministers have failed to come clean with MP's. "The Government will not issue an export licence where doing so would be inconsistent with the criteria. No exceptions are made to this," the spokesman said. "In this case, conditions were placed on the licence to restric the release of the gods until the Libyan police had successfully completed appropriate training on the use of this equipment.
Article taken from the Daily Mail 08/09/2009While Gordon Brown remains mired in controversy over Britain's Libyan dealings, BP is stepping up its potentially lucrative work in the North African nation. Next month the oil giant will complete seismic surveys it has been conducting off Libya's coast, with a view to drilling its first well there next year.
BP has become enmeshed in the continuing furore over the release in Scotland of Abdelbaset Al Megrahi because of evidence that the Lockerbie terrorist's freedom was linked to oil and trade deals between Britain and Libya. The company has said it raised concerns about slow progress on a prisoner transfer agreement in 2007, but it denies its discussions with the UK Government were linked to any specific individual.
Original article taken from the Daily Mail 08/09/2009