Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) were demonstrating outside the Natural History Museum yesterday in protest against its decision to host a reception for the Farnborough arms fair. Our public institutions should not be supporting the arms trade.
The campaign states that “Arms dealers will enjoy cocktails in the shadow of the Museum’s famous Diplodocus.”
They continue “The 37 buyer countries invited by the UK government to Farnborough Airshow include unstable or authoritarian regimes such as Algeria, Bahrain, Indonesia, Libya and Saudi Arabia. Rosoboronexport, the main weapons supplier to the Assad regime in Syria, is a major exhibitor.”
Protesters in a variety of outfits and inflatable dinosaurs made their voices heard outside of the entrance. They argued that public institutions should not be used to help private companies sell arms to dodgy regimes.
CAAT are asking people to email the museum director about this asking that the museum no longer host this kind of event (link).
A dinosaur with is hands in his pockets? Pah!
1 Comment
Its disgraceful that the museum, one of our most popular public institutions should be used to host arms traders. Our government pretends to care about human rights and what is happening in Syria but is quite happy to encourage the companies who sell arms to the despots. outrageous!