Controversial arms fair underway amid high security
Hundreds of protestors have flocked to demonstrate outside Europe’s biggest arms fair.
The Defence Systems and Equipment International (DSEI) show opens in London today and will be attended by around 20,000 delegates from around the world.
Opponents of the controversial arms trade fair have vowed to break through the tight security set up around the ExCel centre in London’s Docklands.
The fair will display a variety of hi-tech weaponry and future technology from more than a thousand defence companies.
The four-day event has already seen the arrests of 61 people before it starts, police revealed.
The protestors’ action is expected to cause some disruption to the show but is not expected to be violent.
“We will put our bodies in front of cars as they arrive and in front of the delegates to prevent them from going to do arms deals,” Martin Hogbin, spokesman for the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, told Reuters.
Demonstrators are particularly incensed that delegates from countries condemned by Amnesty International for human rights violations, such as Syria, Israel and Saudi Arabia, have been invited.
Organisers say the fair is not about buying products “off the shelf”. “You may see something at an exhibition that your country needs but to actually buy it you must go through export licensing and very strict rules that could take years,” a DSEI spokeswoman said.
Among the items on display for sale at the DSEI are warships, a Eurofighter Typhoon jet and an Apache attack helicopter.
The policing bill for the event is expected to top £1 million, with more than 2,600 security guards drafted in, as well as 25 Ministry of Defence police officers.
Metropolitan Police deputy assistant commissioner Andy Trotter, said, “Our concern would be if the demonstration turns into riots or damage and we have got to be prepared to deal with that.”
About half the exhibitors are British firms, with 20 per cent from the US and the remainder from other Nato countries. All firms have signed a form pledging not to display illegal weapons systems.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence’s Defence Export Services Organisation said: “Defence brings £5 billion a year to the UK and benefits between 70,000 and 100,000 jobs.”
