Straw criticized over arms sales to Pakistan, India
LONDON July 19: British lawmakers criticized Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in a report published on Friday for failing to block arms sales to Pakistan and India during the standoff over the last six months.
A joint report by four House of Commons committees _ foreign affairs, defence, trade and industry and international development _ said Straw failed to apply government guidelines banning weapons exports where there was a risk they could be used for external aggression.
The lawmakers said they were surprised that Straw did not personally examine export licence applications to the region during the period of heightened tension in May and June.
In a letter to the committee, Straw said that 148 licences had been issued to India during the period and 18 to Pakistan, but that he had not personally been involved.
The lawmakers said the standoff over Kashmir should have triggered criterion four of the government’s guidelines which forbids arms exports where there is a clear risk they could be used “aggressively against another country”.
“We conclude that if the situation in India and Pakistan in the spring of this year did not fully engage criterion four, it is difficult to conceive of circumstances short of allout war which would do so,” the committee report said.
“The standoff over Kashmir should in our view have led to its application with very great vigour.”
TANZANIA: The committee also rebuked Straw for refusing to hand over details of a confidential cost-benefit analysis of the export of a 28 million pound military air traffic control system to Tanzania, one of the world’s poorest countries.
The decision to approve the sale provoked arguments within the government, amid claims that Tanzania, which receives 69 million pounds a year in British aid, could have acquired an adequate civil system much more cheaply.
Straw said officials were considering whether the information could be passed to the committee in confidence.—AP
