Britain has revoked a series of licences for the export of arms to Bahrain amid concern over the violent suppression of protests in the Gulf state.
The Foreign Office also announced that licences for arms exports to Libya had been withdrawn, while a review of exports to the wider region – including Yemen – continues.
Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt said there was “no evidence of British equipment being used in the unrest in Bahrain”.
The licences cover items which could be used for internal repression, such as tear gas, components for rifles and machine guns, ammunition and crowd control equipment.
Hospital officials have said that at least 50 people were injured, some with gunshot wounds, after soldiers opened fire and used tear gas on protesters who defied a government ban on protests in Bahrain’s main city Manama.
The UK has licensed hundreds of cartridges of tear gas and other riot control equipment for export to Bahrain in the past nine months, but it not known exactly how much material has been exported.
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, which licenses arms exports, has revoked a total of 44 licences for Bahrain and eight for Libya, following a review launched on Thursday, said Mr Burt.
At least five people have died in five days of protests in Bahrain, which have pitted members of the island state’s Shiite majority against its Sunni royal family. An official statement said that Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa had asked his eldest son, Crown Prince Salman, to start a national dialogue “with all parties” to resolve the crisis.
Foreign Secretary William Hague said: “I am alarmed by reports of soldiers firing on protesters in Bahrain. This is an extremely worrying development. The circumstances of what happened are not yet clear, but I call on the Bahrain authorities to avoid violence and the use of excessive force and to exercise restraint.
“The right to freedom of expression and freedom of assembly must be respected. The Bahraini government should move quickly to carry out its commitments to a transparent investigation into recent events and any alleged human rights abuses.”
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