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British Aerospace Systems challenged on morality of their business


Members of Campaign Against Arms Trade and Pax Christi and workers from BAE Systems Brough, were among those raising questions at the Annual General Meeting of British Aerospace Systems in London today.

British Aerospace Systems is now the second largest global defence supplier with 'home markets' in the US, UK, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Australia and India. Its 2011 Report shows sales worth £19,154 million and a profit of £1,580 million.

Pat Gaffney, General Secretary of Pax Christi, has been attending these Annual Meetings since the mid-1990s when BAE were involved in the sale of Hawk Aircraft to Indonesia, at that time an occupying force in East Timor.

Speaking of today's meeting Pat said: "I raised questions to challenge their deep involvement with Saudi Arabia where defence spending is very high. I wanted to know why they continue with this when they speak of the financial risks of working in the Middle East, and in their own words, the political instability and civil disturbance in the region. I wanted to know if by this they meant the search for democracy and human rights that we see in Bahrain, Egypt and elsewhere?

"I also wanted confirmation that their 200 Tactica Vehicles, sold to the National Guard of Saudi Arabia, had not been used against protestors in Bahrain last year. Dick Oliver the Chair was unable to give this confirmation"

Moving questions were raised by some of the 800-strong workforce at Brough near Hull who face redundancy. Little appears to be moving with BAE in terms of a thought-out, viable diversification programme in a world where military spending is decreasing. Their major strategy of 'alternatives' is in the expansion of their Cyber and Intelligence work. This has military and business dimensions but they were unable to go into detail.

Pat Gaffney said: "in all the years I have attended these meeting a consistent claim is that BAE Systems do nothing which is illegal - they cooperate with Government and with the licencing requirements of Government. Today I asked them to push their boundaries and really live up to the ethics to which they aspire, to take the moral stand against Government by refusing to work with countries such as Saudi Arabia who
have an appalling record on human rights and who cause violent instability in the region".

For more information see: www.paxchristi.org.uk

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