England importerer 100.000 AK-47

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UK imports over 100,000 AK-47 rifles

Antony Barnett and Mark Townsend
Sunday June 25, 2006
The Observer

The staggering number of AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifles being imported into Britain has been revealed for the first time by new figures obtained by The Observer.
Details of import licences granted by the Department of Trade and Industry between March and June 2005 reveal that arms firms were given approval to import 250,000 automatic weapons, including at least 100,000 AK-47s.

Many are believed to have come from the Balkans. AK-47s are not used by the British army and it is feared the guns could be exported to war zones or end up in the hands of criminals. This week, Trade Minister Malcolm Wicks will be asked to explain the imports in Parliament.

Brian Wood, Amnesty International's arms control expert, said: 'It is astonishing that the government has granted import licences to UK firms for a vast quantity of military assault weapons that are banned from UK civilian use and do not appear amongst British soldiers. Where are they going? A full inquiry is needed to ensure that such weapons do not find their way to human rights abusers or criminal gangs.'

Amnesty, which will release a report on the international trade in AK-47s this week, claims the US Defence Department used chains of arms brokers to channel weapons to allies and military groups across the globe. It has already suggested that three UK firms had imported a consignment of 20,000 AK-47s in June 2005 from Bosnia.

However, this allegation is denied by the directors of those firms, who claim that the rifles were imported to the UK to be decommissioned, with the approval of the Home Office, the DTI and the Security Service.

A spokesman for the DTI said: 'Before any import licence for such weapons is granted all the necessary checks are made.

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