UK guaranteed over £130m in loans for repressive governments to spend on arms

(The Independent, London, 18 June 2015) Britain has guaranteed more than £130m in loans for repressive governments to spend on arms in the last year, new figures show. Indonesia already owes Britain £246m from historic loans, however this year the UK government has guaranteed a further £132m of loan for the country to purchase arms. The loan guarantee has been used by the Indonesian military to purchase the British-built Starstreak anti-aircraft missile, to the dismay of anti-arms trade campaigners. New figures for 2014 also show that UK Export Finance, Britain’s official export credit agency, backed a bond of £190,000 to allow Saudi Arabia to purchase “unspecified” arms. The figures come as a Jubilee Debt Campaign report claims that 75 per cent of the export owed to debt is “illegitimate” and much of it comes from past loans for arms sales to repressive regimes.The figures come as a Jubilee Debt Campaign report claims that 75 per cent of the export owed to debt is “illegitimate” and much of it comes from past loans for arms sales to repressive regimes.

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