CHATURANGA PRADEEP SAMARAWICKRAMA 
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Britain sold weapons to SL
Sri Lanka is also among the 27 countries that the British government sold weapons. Britain had supplied £12bn of arms to some 27 countries including Sri Lanka, the House of Commons Committees on Arms Export Controls stated in their 2013 report.Accordingly, Britain approved extant arms export licences to Sri Lanka worth over £8mn for assault rifles, body armour, combat shotguns, components for assault rifles, components for body armour, components for combat shotguns, components for pistols, components for sniper rifles, components for rifles, equipment employing cryptography, pistols, rifles, small arms ammunition, sniper rifles, software for equipment employing cryptography, sporting guns and weapons.
Chairman of the influential Commons committees on arms export controls (CAEC), has criticised exports of arms to countries that the Foreign Office has expressed human rights concerns about.
The Parliamentary committees report says the sales to Sri Lanka, worth over £8mn raised “very serious questions”.
The committee’s chairman, Conservative MP Sir John Stanley, said “There are other, quite clear areas of concern; 600 assault rifles were sold to Sri Lanka, despite the very well documented cases of human rights abuse there. We have to ask the Government why this is the case. Arms licences to Sri Lanka included pistols, small arms ammunition and approval for the sale assault rifles.
The MPs demand tighter controls on weapons sales to authoritarian regimes, saying that more than 3,000 export licences for arms worth £12bn were approved for 28 countries cited by the Foreign Office for their poor human rights records. They include Israel, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Sri Lanka. (Sunil Jayasiri)
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