Georgian elite forces fighting in South Ossetia have been illegally armed with Heckler & Koch assault rifles.
According to Human Rights Watch, the Georgian military “used indiscriminate and disproportionate force resulting in civilian deaths in South Ossetia”. However, that hasn’t stopped these war criminals from being customers of Heckler & Koch!
When Heckler & Koch applied for permission to supply 230 assault rifles to Georgia, the German government refused on the grounds that Georgia was involved in a war. But as any successful arms company knows, there are many ways to get around these obstacles, and sure enough, the German-made weapons showed up in Georgia anyway!
To quote the head of BITS, “It doesn’t matter how these weapons landed in Georgia; whether they were illegally exported from Germany, whether a licensed exporter violated German laws or whether a recipient of the weapons who acquired them legally in Germany, further exported them.”
The point is, that’s just how the arms industry works.
And which department of Heckler & Koch is responsible for sales to Georgia and other non-NATO countries? Check the corporate website: It’s Heckler & Koch GB, based at Unit 3, Easter Park, Lenton Lane, Nottingham NG7 2PX.
So next time you see pictures of wretched South Ossetian civilians clutching the bodies of their loved ones amid the shredded ruins of their homes, just remember: a company in Nottingham helped to make that happen.
That is such a good example of how the arms industry works, and a hard to find example of the usual practice for H&K. Ooohhh they’re so evil. Well done whoever did the research.
Despite pressure from German MPs, security analysts and anti-arms-trade campaigners, the German Government has deliberately avoided revealing how the H&K weapons ended up in Georgia, according to the October 2008 newsletter of the German Action Network to Stop Small Arms.