APPENDIX XIII
Further memorandum from the Foreign and
Commonwealth Office
I am writing to provide information to the Committee
on a number of points.
First, in respect of the Committee's request
in your letter of 5 March, I attach data on Open Individual Export
Licences granted for India that appear in the 2001 Annual Report.
Second, the Government undertook, in its response
to the Committee's Session 2001-02 report, recommendation (e),
to write with further details about the use of British equipment
by the Sri Lankan armed forces in recent incidents. I can now
inform the Committee, *** that the Government has *** concluded
that there has been no misuse of the equipment covered by the
licences.
Third, the Government is considering its responses
to several other requests from the Committee, including that in
your letter of 13 March, and hopes to respond to them shortly.
Fourth, the Committee may welcome information
about an OIEL the Government issued in 2001. This OIEL allowed
the export of most items on the military list (except for the
most sensitive goods, such as land mines) to Bahrain, Germany,
Iceland, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Oman, Pakistan,
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, United Arab
Emirates, USA and Uzbekistan. The licence has since been amended
to include Afganistan and Turkey.
The Government recognises that there has been
a certain interest in the details of this licence. The Government
can therefore state that this OIEL was issued to the United States
Government, and the equipment was for use in support of US military
operations overseas. The licence was restricted not to
be used for foreign military sales. Whilst this information is
normally confidential and given to the Committee only in confidence,
in this case we have obtained permission from the US Government
to declassify its identity as the end-user. I can confirm that
this was the only OIEL issued in 2001 to Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
It was the most comprehensive OIEL to other destinations on the
list. This information is unclassified and may be drawn upon freely
by the Committee.
6 May 2003
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