§ Mr. VazTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what military equipment has been supplied to the central African region from companies in(a) the United Kingdom, (b) the Isle of Man, (c) the Channel Islands and (d) other United Kingdom dependent territories in the last five years. [1054]
§ Mr. SpellarThe Ministry of Defence does not hold details of military equipment supplied, other than those which are provided voluntarily by companies for the purposes of the annual return to the UN Arms Register; no exports to Zaire, Rwanda, Burundi, Central African Republic or Congo, have been included in the UK's return to the UN Register in the period 1992–96.
220WDetails of export licences issued to companies seeking to supply controlled military goods to these countries are held by the DTI in respect of companies based in the United Kingdom and the Isle of Man. Details of export licences issued by the Channel Islands and UK dependent territories are held by the authorities there. This information could be provided only at disproportionate cost.
The British Government have been fully committed to both the UN embargo imposed in May 1994 banning the supply of arms to Rwanda and the 1993 European Union embargo on the export of arms to Zaire. Press allegations were made in November 1996 that British companies might have been involved in the supply of arms to Rwandan extremists in 1994, but there was no evidence to suggest that arms had been exported from the UK. The Government established an inter-departmental committee to examine rigorously our procedures in relation to the trafficking in arms, to determine whether there had been a gap in our controls. A copy of the Committee's report was placed in the Library of the House in December last year.