This Week in the News

Unless you have been living under a rock for the last three weeks you can’t help but notice that for various reasons UK relations with Libya have hit the headlines.

On Thursday August 20th Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill released Abdelbaet Ali al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds. Al-Megrahi was the only man convicted of the bombing of Pan AM flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988.

It seemed that the Scottish justice system had struck a blow for compassion by allowing a terminally ill man to die on his own soil. However, the decision immediately polarised communities on both sides of the Atlantic. Bastions of the American political elite leapt vociferously to attack the decision, chiming simultaneously with those still embittered by the loss of their loved ones twenty-one years ago.

Perhaps the Libyan regime’s beguiling temerity has vindicated those who blocked the release. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi’s show of nationalistic pride as he greeted the prodigal parolee (left) was the equivalent of a diplomatic raspberry in the face of sincerity.

However, I still felt the right decision had been made. In a world where my father chides me for watching 'Al Qaeda' news when I’m watching Al Jazeera, I welcome the need to make gestures of tolerance and moral maturity.

However, it has emerged that there may be more than compassion behind this divisive and much publicised brouhaha. This week The Times has reported that “high level political interventions had enhanced the prospects of arms sales to Libya.”

The arms trade would not be the only sector of British industry to benefit from such a thawing of relations.

As far back as 2007, BP were lobbying Justice Secretary Jack Straw for “a speedy conclusion to [prisoner transfer] negotiations that were threatening to damage commercial interests in Libya.” BP has tantalisingly declared it was not the only British company pressing Ministers for such an outcome.

So where does that leave us today?
Tuesday this week saw the opening of Defence Systems and Equipment International (DSEI) in London, the largest arms fair in Europe.

And which country do you believe may be sending its largest delegation yet to shop for its guns on our soil? You guessed it.

It seems that somewhere in between the lifting of sanctions against Libya under the Blair premiership and the recent drama, trade talks had stalled over the fate of Al Megrahi.

Not only Libya, but Saudi Arabia and even China have been invited to attend the fair.

Anti-arms campaigners point to loopholes in British Arms control legislation. These loop holes have lead to the image controlling our military exports, yet:

“The government will be inviting human rights abusers, countries engaged in conflict and those with urgent development needs to shop for weapons,” said Sarah Waldron of Campaign Against the Arms Trade.
So there you have it.

It takes a compassionate and independent judiciary to bring a violent human rights abusing regime back in from the cold, so it can buy its weapons of suppression from the UK.