"UK Arms Used for Internal Repression"

Britain should immediately reconsider its rules and regulations as far as arms exports to countries led by authoritarian regimes worldwide are concerned, a parliamentary committee in a report has said.

A cross-party committee of senior backbench MPs has strongly criticized the way weapons exports are approved by the UK government, saying in a report that the weapons are used for internal repression.

The report says successive governments have authorized British arms including crowd control ammunition, guns and small arms ammunition to be sold to countries in North Africa and the Middle East such as Libya, Bahrain and Egypt, which their governments have been using to suppress their people's demands for democracy and freedom.

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