01 december 2020
13:34
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The Walloon Region has seen arms exports almost triple in 2019. Proceedings brought by a number of human rights and peace organizations before the Council of State reduced those exports in 2020.
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Last year, Wallonia granted more than 2.6 billion euros in arms export licenses, an increase of no less than 180 percent. It has been since 2014 that it sold so many weapons, according to a report that Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo (PS) submitted ten days ago in the Walloon Parliament and that our sister newspaper L’Echo could look in.
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The Walloon Region is the owner of the weapons manufacturer FN and the home of John Cockerill (the former CMI). The arms industry provides more than 4,000 jobs.
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Wallonia last year exported weapons to 64 countries and some major private players. The main market in 2019 was Canada. It bought nearly EUR 1.8 billion worth of weapons. According to the report, these are weapons in the category ‘tanks, armored vehicles and loose parts’.
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Saudi Arabia
The trade is part of the ‘arms contract of the century’ that John Cockerill (then CMI) concluded in 2014 with the Canadian GD Mission Systems – a subsidiary of the American defense giant General Dynamics. The Belgian arms company supplies gun turrets, which are mounted on armored vehicles in Canada and then shipped to Saudi Arabia.
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The Saudis have also become one of the Walloon Region’s most important customers directly within a few years. In 2019, the Gulf State bought 302 million euros worth of armaments directly from Wallonia, over 75 million more than in 2018. The United States is in third place, with 107 million euros.
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European frontrunner
The links between Walloon arms exports and Saudi Arabia have been criticized for years by human rights and peace organizations. In recent years, our country has supplied by far the most weapons of all EU countries to the kingdom, which has been criticized worldwide for its role in the war in Yemen and its violations of human rights.
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In March of this year, three organizations – Ligue des Droits Humains, CNAPD and Forum voor Vredesactie – successfully brought proceedings with the Council of State to suspend all export licenses to Saudi Arabia, including indirect deliveries via Canada. The Council of State followed their reasoning that the Saudi National Guard, to which the weapons were supplied, deployed them in Yemen.
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The Walloon government did not wait for the cancellation of the permits, but this summer withdrew all permits on which six new export permits were issued. It involved four export licenses for FN Herstal to supply weapons to the National Guard, and two to John Cockerill to supply weapons to the Royal Guard of the oil state via Canada.
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“That was a bizarre situation,” says Bram Vranken of Vredesactie. The Royal Guard is another unit of the Saudi army, which is not involved in the war in Yemen, but has other things on its tally, such as the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and other dissidents. In 2018, then Prime Minister Willy Borsus (MR) said that John Cockerill’s weapons were intended for both the National and the Royal Guard. ‘
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New procedure
The three organizations again instituted proceedings with the Council of State to have the export licenses suspended, but this time they were not right across the board. Export licenses to Canada were not suspended because the Royal Guard is not involved in the war in Yemen. Currently, a cancellation procedure is ongoing against the suspended and non-suspended permits.
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As a result of the proceedings, arms exports to Saudi Arabia and Canada have declined this year. Figures from the National Bank show that Wallonia normally exports weapons and explosives to Saudi Arabia for 200 million euros a year. In the first six months of this year it was only 40 million euros.
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Wallonia and human rights
The large export flow to Canada from 2019 is remarkable, because French-speaking Belgium – led by the then Walloon Prime Minister Paul Magnette (PS) – was the only one in the European Union in 2016. opposed the treatybecause it would harm human rights, rule of law and food security and give multinationals too much power. In the end nothing was changed in the text, but a letter was added to the treaty text.
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CETA has already been in effect for the time being, meaning that 98 percent of the former trade tariffs between the EU and Canada no longer apply. To become definitive, it still has to get the green light from some EU countries, including Belgium.
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