Antinuclear

Internal Defence Department documents obtained under Freedom of Information (FOI) and from parliamentary hearings reveal since the beginning of 2016, Canberra has granted at least 37 export permits for military-related items to the United Arab Emirates, and 20 to Saudi Arabia.

They are the two countries leading a coalition fighting a war against Houthi rebels in the Middle East’s poorest nation, Yemen.

The four-year war in Yemen has killed tens of thousands and an air-and-sea embargo has led to more than 85,000 Yemeni children under five dying from hunger, according to one children’s agency.

Australia’s burgeoning exports to the UAE and Saudi Arabia may be connected to a plan announced by then-Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in January to drastically increase defence sales over the next decade.

Australia will spend $200 million between now and 2028 in order to make Australia the 10th-largest arms exporter in the world. It is currently the 20th largest.

The strategy states the Middle East is a “priority market” for defence exports.

The Government has tried to keep details of the exports secret, but New South Wales lawyer and human rights activist Kellie Tranter has spent a year trying to shed light on the sales.

“I have a child under five and it was difficult not to be moved by the images coming through from Yemen. [With] a baby on the way I felt compelled to find out what if any role our country had to play in that suffering,” Ms Tranter said.

Ms Tranter has tracked the rise of exports to the Middle East via a series of Defence FOI requests.

It was Ms Tranter’s work that uncovered the scale of the export certificates to the UAE and Saudi.

Export permits are needed before companies or the Government can ship military or dual-use items overseas, though sometimes a company receives an export permit and does not ultimately export the item.

Ms Tranter said the permits were evidence Australia is trying to increase sales to countries involved in the Yemen war.

“We’re actually engaging with the very players that are potentially involved in nefarious activities in Yemen,” she said.

“You’re talking about war crimes, mounting evidence of war crimes.”

The heavily redacted FOI documents do not show which Australian companies are receiving the permits, who their international customers are, or even what items they are planning to export.

“Not even members of the Opposition who have been trying to extract this information from the Government are permitted to know,” Ms Tranter said.

In August this year the United Nations released a report accusing the Saudi-led coalition of a series of human rights abuses, including indiscriminate air strikes and UAE-run secret prisons using torture and murder.

The report also called on the international community to halt weapons sales to the coalition.

Former Australian MP Melissa Parke is one of the authors of the report. She said governments that are members of the UN should be careful when considering the issue of military exports.

“Member states assisting parties to the conflict will want to ensure that they are not aiding and abetting war crimes,” Ms Parke said.

“And that they are not violating obligations they may have under treaties such as the arms trade treaty.”

Australia is signatory to the international Arms Trade Treaty, which entered into force on December 24, 2014.

Eyes on Canberra-backed weapons deal

Questions are being asked about an Australian defence company’s recent export deal to supply high-powered weapons systems, which according to sources may be bound for the UAE.

Electro Optic Systems, better known as EOS, is an Australian defence and space technology company with ambitions to become the world leader in next-generation remote weapons systems.

The systems are a collection of sensors, cameras and lasers set around a small cannon or heavy machine gun. They are built onto a swivelling mount that can be affixed to the roof of a military truck or the deck of a naval vessel.

It allows a soldier to fire while safely inside a vehicle and can acquire targets up to several kilometres away on its own.

In January, EOS announced a $410 million deal to supply weapons systems.

Two people have told the ABC the end user is the United Arab Emirates (UAE)……….. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-12-13/australias-secret-backing-for-nations-fighting-bloody-yemen-war/10600912?fbclid=IwAR3i6mwY57enzCBWFBlUunAPhjZ6NnzZ6DL_iVEsPPYHKl7tG9RuluPoQAc