Underskog

(Information in English below)

I Norge var Saudi-Arabia det landet utenfor NATO som fikk mest norsk krigsmateriell i 2010. Spanias Kong Juan Carlos reiste forrige måned til Saudi-Arabias kongefamilie for å skaffe kontrakter til spansk våpenindustri. Storbritannias Prince Charles har gjort det samme i flere år, til stor kritikk. Samtidig ble nylig en tysk våpeneksportlisens til Saudi-Arabia verdt 500 millioner Euro stanset. Hvorfor støtter demokratiske og frie europeiske land diktaturer med krigsmateriell? Og hvordan kan vi stanse denne eksporten?

Norges Fredslag er 6. – 8. juni vertskap for European Network Against Arms Trade (ENAAT). Fredag kommer aktivister fra hele Europa til Oslo for å snakke om kampen mot våpeneksport til diktaturer og autoritære regimer. Kom på FREDagspils på Mono og hør fra europas mest erfarne aktivister på feltet!

Innledninger ved:

• Alexander Harang leder i Norges Fredslag
• Ann Feltham jobber med lobby og parlamentarikere i Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT UK)
• Hanne Sofie Lindahl påtroppende leder i Changemaker

Etter disse vil det bli åpnet for kommentarer og diskusjoner.

Norwegian and European arms export to authoritarian regimes

The Norwegian Peace Association is hosting this year’s annual meeting of the European Network Against Arms Trade (ENAAT). On Friday 6th of June, activists from all over Europe will come to Oslo to discuss the work on stopping arms trade to authoritarian regimes. Join us at Mono (Friday 17:30) to meet Europe’s most experienced activists on this topic!

Arms export to authoritarian regimes is a controversial topic all over Europe. The Arab spring did not lead to more restrictive arms export to the Arab dictatorships. EU’s arms export to these countries has in fact doubled between 2007 and 2012.

In 2010, Saudi Arabia was the largest non-NATO recipient of Norwegian war material. Last month, King Juan Carlos of Spain went to the Saudi royal family to secure contracts for Spanish arms industry. Great Britain’s Prince Charles has been criticized for doing the same for many years. At the same time, only weeks ago arms export contracts worth 500 million euros were stopped in Germany. Why are democratic and free European countries supplying dictators with arms and weaponry? And how can this be stopped?

Introductions by:

• Alexander Harang leader of the Norwegian Peace Association

• Ann Feltham Parliamentary Co-ordinator of Campaign Against Arms Trade UK. Ann has been working for CAAT since 1985 and for the last couple of years she has focused on the UK government’s promotion of arms exports, especially to human rights violators and to regions of conflict.

• Hanne Sofie Lindahl leader-elect of Changemaker Norway. Changemaker is Norway’s largest youth organization working on North-South issues and is this year launching a campaign against the Norwegian war material exports to authoritarian regimes.

Following the introductions, the floor will be open for comments and discussions.