Mexican State Police with H&K assault rifle

Police in Germany have once again raided the headquarters of arms company Heckler & Koch, this time amid allegations that the company has been bribing Mexican officials to get lucrative arms deals. Around 300 officers raided company premises on November 10th, as well as the homes of several H&K executives.

According to the Stuttgart prosecutor, H&K bribed Mexican officials from 2005 to 2010, and possibly bribed German officials too. The company was also raided last December by police investigating H&K’s illegal sale of weapons for Mexican states that are known to commit serious human rights violations.

The arms company has an international sales office in Nottingham, at Unit 3, Easter Park on the Lenton Lane industrial estate. Local campaigners believe that the company’s business is unethical and that it should be shut down.

Libyan rebel with H&K assault rifle from Gaddafi's compound

When Libyan rebels stormed Gaddafi’s Bab al-Aziziya compound in Tripoli in August, they seized a stockpile of brand new Heckler & Koch assault rifles, which they promptly turned against government forces. Now German prosecutors have launched an investigation into how these weapons came to be supplied to the Libyan dictatorship.

H&K, which now finds itself the under investigation for possible violation of Germany’s War Weapons Control Act, has admitted that the weapons came from a tranche of 608 rifles and 500,000 rounds of ammunition that the company supplied to Egypt’s autocratic regime in 2003.

The company has an international sales office in Lenton, Nottingham. Local residents are calling for it to be shut down, pointing to the company’s long track record of supplying arms to authoritarian regimes, including several of those that have brutally suppressed the popular uprisings of the ‘Arab Spring’.

A spokesperson for the Shut Down H&K campaign said “This company’s business is immoral, and its employees are complicit in the abuses of the repressive regimes that they help to arm. We should not tolerate such a company to operate in our city.”

Customers of H&K - Bahraini police on the rampage

With security forces in Bahrain attacking protesters and dragging doctors from their beds, it has emerged that Nottingham-based arms company Heckler & Koch has supplied 13 000 rounds of small arms ammunition to Bahrain. The ammo was for H&K rifles and submachine guns, which have been used by Bahraini police against the democracy movement in the last few weeks.

Although the sale took place before the current wave of unrest began, H&K cannot have been unaware of the repressive nature of the Bahraini regime. In 2009, the year the ammo was supplied, both Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reported that Bahraini police were carrying out abductions, torture and beatings of political activists.

By arming repressive regimes such as this, H&K is complicit in the human rights abuses they commit. The company has an international sales office in Nottingham, which has been the target of numerous protests in the four years since it was discovered by local anti-arms-trade campaigners.

In the video, Saif Gaddafi can clearly be seen toting a Heckler & Koch G36 assault rifle. In a subsequent interview, Saif was asked by Channel 4 Foreign Affairs Correspondent Jonathan Miller about the “AK-47″ he was brandishing in the video. Showing his pride for the weapon, Saif replied “That was not an AK; that was a Heckler.”

Serbian war criminal Arkan posing with his H&K gun

This is not the first time that Heckler & Koch weapons have been chosen by dictators and warlords. Notorious Serbian warlord Arkan, who was indicted by the UN for crimes against humanity, carried a silenced H&K MP5 submachine gun, and armed his bodyguards with MP5s too.

Heckler & Koch has an international sales office in Nottingham, which exports millions of pounds worth of weapons every year.

Thanks to “Disgusted” for posting the item about Gaddafi’s son on Nottingham Indymedia. If you have any interesting information about Heckler & Koch or other Nottinghamshire arms companies, please contact Shut Down H&K or Notts Anti-Militarism.

In the wake of revelations about the UK selling arms to repressive regimes such as Libya and Bahrain, the One Show decided to do a report looking at the UK’s arms trade. The report was based around the Map of Militarism produced by Notts Anti-Militarism. Kirk Jackson, from Campaign Against Arms Trade and Notts Anti-Militarism, took One Show reporter Simon Boazman to a few of the local arms companies, including small arms manufacturer Heckler & Koch, the target of a long-running local campaign.

It’s almost inevitable that in media reports such as this, there will be a few inaccuracies and omissions:

• Contrary to the report, campaigners do not claim that Nottingham is a “key player” in the arms industry. There are other areas of the country that have a bigger arms industry. The point is that wherever you are in the UK, you’re never far from an arms company.
• The soundbite of Kirk saying that “jobs that were shed from the arms industry would be soaked up by other industries” was presented in the report as his own view and then dismissed by Simon Boazman as “wishful thinking”. However, Kirk was actually quoting Sandy Wilson, Vice President of the trade organisation that represents the UK arms industry.
• The One Show cut out the name of the last company in the report, following unfounded concerns that the programme might risk a libel suit. That company, which deals in small arms and ammunition, is called Easy Tiger International and is based at 10 Kingston Drive in Cotgrave.
• The arms fair mentioned by Simon Boazman is actually called Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEi) and it takes place every two years. Campaign groups are already gearing up to take action against it when it returns to London this September.

In depth

Of course, a brief report on a light-hearted magazine programme like The One Show is never going to have the time to examine the issue in depth. Hence, campaigners didn’t get the chance to respond to government assurances that the UK arms industry is tightly controlled.

In fact, the licensing system is a façade that gives the image of control while allowing companies to export weapons to repressive regimes. It is obvious that belatedly revoking arms export licenses to Libya is a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.

Furthermore, while the One Show report repeatedly stressed the economic importance of the arms industry, it stopped short of asking why the UK has such a large arms industry.

The UK arms industry is so big because successive UK governments – Labour and Conservative alike - have protected and nurtured it with a variety of subsidies even as they allowed other domestic industries to be lost to globalisation. This is because Britain still wants to “punch above its weight” – to exert a disproportionate influence on world affairs.

In order to keep our seat at the top table, we need to be a major military power, and that means having our own hi-tech arms manufacturing base. However, maintaining this capability is extremely expensive, so to try to offset the cost, the government helps British arms companies to sell as much as possible to other countries.

When arms trade apologists like Francis Tusa point to the economic importance of the industry, we need to challenge the militarist policies that caused it to prosper at the expense of other more positive endeavours.

We mustn’t get bogged down debating the economic value of the arms trade – to do so would be letting its supporters set the terms of the argument. The arms trade is no more important to our economy than the slave trade was in the 18th century. Back then many people defended slavery on the basis of its economic importance, but now no-one would say we were wrong to abolish it. Our strongest argument is the moral argument.

Back to the One Show report and studio guest Lorraine Kelly expressed concern that weapons sold to a foreign country may subsequently be used to kill British soldiers sent to fight in that country. While it’s nice that she questioned the wisdom of arms exports, her comment carried the assumption that any such UK invasion would be justified. As anti-militarists, we are opposed not only to arming other countries, but also to equipping British forces to wage imperialist wars like the one in Iraq.

However, despite its shortcomings, the One Show report was valuable in raising the issue of the UK’s immoral trade in arms with an audience of millions who may not normally be aware of it.

The head of Egypt's armed forces (l) on Cairo's Tahrir Square with bodyguard wielding a H&K machine pistol

Across the Middle East and North Africa, people have risen up to try to overthrow their undemocratic governments, and these uprisings have been met with state-sponsored violence and repression.

Now Notts Anti-Militarism can reveal that several of these repressive regimes have been armed by a company with an international sales office in Nottingham: Heckler & Koch.

In Libya, forces loyal to 42-year dictator Muammar Gaddafi have been slaughtering civilian protesters in the streets. According to Jane’s Infantry Weapons, Libya’s armed forces are still equipped with Heckler & Koch G3 rifles.

They bought these rifles from the Greek state manufacturer, which was in turn licensed by Heckler & Koch. The company has used this type of deal many times in order to profit from arms exports that would not be allowed in its home country.

The regime in Bahrain has also been shooting pro-democracy demonstrators. Bahraini forces are equipped with the more up-to-date MP5 submachine gun. This weapon is also used by the armed forces of  Egypt, Jordan and Morocco, all of which have seen pro-democracy demonstrations recently. Jordanian forces are also armed with Heckler & Koch’s modern G36 assault rifle.

Jordanian special forces training with H&K assault rifles

And these are only the countries that have seen recent pro-democracy uprisings. Heckler & Koch weapons are used by other repressive regimes in the region, including Lebanon, which teeters on the brink of civil war, Sudan, which has been riven by conflict for decades, and Saudi Arabia, whose autocratic regime is characterised by gross abuses of human rights.

This is just a snapshot of the profile of Heckler & Koch, whose weapons have been sold to undemocratic and repressive regimes around the world, and have killed at least 1.5 million people. If the people of the Middle East can face down the bullets in a once-in-a-lifetime fight for freedom, then the people of Nottingham can rise up and end the company that makes these weapons.

Mexican policeman with a new H&K gun

The German HQ of arms company Heckler & Koch has been raided by police after campaigners exposed illegal weapons sales to conflict zones in Mexico.

The German government placed an arms embargo on four of Mexico’s 31 states, including Chiapas, home of the Zapatistas, due to serious human rights abuses there. However, between 2006 and 2009, H&K sold assault rifles to those states, shipping the weapons to Mexico City in order to disguise their final destination. Furthermore, Heckler & Koch bribed a Mexican general to get the deal.

Details of the deal were passed by an anonymous H&K whistleblower to Jürgen Grässlin, Germany’s most prominent anti-arms-trade campaigner. Grässlin informed German state prosecutors of the illegal deal back in April 2010 but they did nothing until the deal was exposed in the German media in December.

German MPs demanded action, so on December 21st, 20 police raided H&K’s headquarters searching for evidence of the deals. H&K is claiming that it only sold the weapons to central government, not to particular states. This disingenuous claim is undermined by evidence that H&K employees flew out to the banned states and trained the police in how to use the weapons.

Heckler & Koch has a long history of evading arms export restrictions and campaigners against the company believe that it has conducted many other illegal arms deals. However, this is the first time that a whistleblower from inside the company has provided hard evidence.

H&K has an international sales office and warehouse stocked with automatic weapons in Lenton, Nottingham. Campaigners continue to call for it to be shut down.

UPDATE: The German government has banned H&K from sending any more weapons to Mexico while investigations are carried out.

The event was organised by a controversial government department called UKTI DSO, which spends millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money every year promoting British arms exports, often to unstable and repressive regimes. The organisation won the 2010 Quango Awards prize for Most Ethically Dubious Quango, and Campaign Against Arms Trade is trying to get it closed down.

The main allegation is that Heeschen and Halsey “loaned” themselves over 100 million euros from the company account and promptly spent it on playboy luxuries such as mansions, aircraft (including a $12 million Bombardier and a $5 million Challenger) and a yacht.

Better than business class - this is how arms dealers travel

These investors loaned over €150 million to Heckler & Koch Beteiligungs (HKB – the parent company of Heckler & Koch) for the usual business development purposes but were spooked when KPMG‘s financial statements for 2008 flagged up that around €30 million had been loaned directly to the shareholders, with nothing to guarantee that it would ever be paid back.

As the complaint against Heeschen and Halsey wryly notes:

[...] the purported €30 million in “loans” have no loan term and the shareholders are not required to make any payments. A “loan” that never matures and requires no payments is not a loan

Quite.

After concerns were raised by KPMG, the investors started looking into HKB’s affairs with more than a little interest. Here’s a few highlights of the allegations contained in the complaint:

Soon after the borrowed money hit the corporate borrower’s (HKB’s) bank account, however, Heeschen & Halsey, instead of using the money for HKB’s business purposes as mandated, caused that money to be transferred to themselves, and they used it for a personal spending spree that shocks the conscience. They bought mansions for over €40 million, personal jets, a helicopter, a yacht, and more, leaving HKB with insufficient funds to repay the loan. This type of misuse of the borrowed monies was explicitly prohibited by the loan agreement, not to mention any concept of corporate propriety.

And they didn’t stop there:

HKB made no fewer (and likely more) than €108 million in “loans” to its shareholders (or their controlled entities) that are not in compliance with the Loan Agreement. Considering that the original principal of the Loan was €l00 million, the current outstanding balance is approximately €151 million, and HKB has only €96,000 remaining in cash after its distributions to shareholders [...]

Oops.

Reading through the plaintiff’s submissions (case number 603522-2009 in New York County, if you’re interested), it’s hard to come away with anything other than the impression that Heeschen and Halsey are a pair of playboys who forgot the law still applied to them. The opening salvos in the case were a series of letters and meetings where the lenders repeatedly asked for clarification and Heeschen and Halsey effectively said “we’re allowed to do this, go away”. They even made a PowerPoint presentation to that effect:

[...] HKB did little more at the meeting than regurgitate its July 30, 2009 conclusory contentions, only this time via a PowerPoint presentation instead of a letter.

Presumably with some nice animated transitions between slides, to really add weight to their argument.

One of the most interesting documents is the description of the poor chap trying to serve Andreas Heeschen with papers. It seems that poor Mr Heeschen repeatedly avoided meeting the solicitor, and apparently pretended not to be at home in the naive hope that the whole thing would just go away. That’s certainly not going to happen and, whoever wins this one, either the investment bankers or the arms dealers are going to lose.

Rooftop occupation at Heckler & Koch

On May 20th at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court, anti-arms-trade activist Kirk Jackson was found guilty of aggravated trespass for his part in a protest that shut down an arms company for a day. He was given a twelve month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £350 court costs.

The charge arose from a February 18th protest at the Nottingham warehouse of international arms company Heckler & Koch. Before dawn, four activists locked themselves to the gates, preventing employees from entering, while Kirk and another activist climbed onto the roof and displayed banners accusing the company of “arming repressive regimes”.

Heckler & Koch has been the target of demonstrations since 2007 when Nottingham residents discovered its presence on the Lenton Lane industrial estate. The company has a long history of supplying weapons to unstable regions, and using licensed production deals in order to evade arms embargoes. This was the first direct action taken against the company.

The offence of aggravated trespass is committed if a person does something while trespassing that is intended to obstruct or disrupt lawful activity. Kirk argued that his only intention in displaying banners on the roof was to create a photo op for the attending media but the three magistrates accepted the Crown prosecutor’s argument that he was in a “joint enterprise” with the activists locked to the gates.

The other five activists had already pleaded guilty and been sentenced on March 17th.

Heckler & Koch MD Mike Thornton

Mike Thornton, the Managing Director of Heckler & Koch was in court as a witness. He seemed nervous and avoided eye contact with the defendant and his supporters, but his performance was revealing: Having sworn to tell the whole truth, he baulked when cross-examined about his company’s activities.

Most notably, when asked if his company carried out manufacturing at its Lenton Lane industrial unit, he looked very uncomfortable and asked the magistrates “Is it necessary to discuss that?” His response confirmed campaigners’ long-held suspicions that the warehouse is used to assemble automatic weapons.

Mr Thornton was given a copy of the Shut Down H&K campaign’s December 2009 open letter to him and asked if he had seen it before. He admitted to having received the letter, in which serious concerns about H&K were raised, and to having decided to ignore it. He did however concede that citizens have a legitimate right to protest against companies such as his.

Arms dealers love euphemisms and Thornton is no exception. He described his business as “defence sector”, his lethal wares as merely “product”, and when asked about the impact of the protest, he said “we were held back in what we were trying to achieve.” Spectators were struck by the similarities between Mr Thornton and the villainous arms company execs from Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s recent film Micmacs.

The 18th Feb blockade of Heckler & Koch

The prosecution’s police witness was Chief Inspector Stephen Haylett, who characterised the protest as “as good-natured as a demonstration gets”. This left the prosecution struggling to convince the court that Thornton was a victim of intimidation. In his statement, the arms company boss claimed that the protest left him feeling “vulnerable and intimidated.” ”It was not known if [the protesters] were armed with any type of missiles,” said the man with the warehouse full of guns. (In fact, the reams of police video footage played in court showed the defendant wielding nothing more threatening than a cheese & pickle sandwich.)

It was Chief Inspector Haylett who told the activists on H&K’s roof that their banners would be returned, but in court he claimed that he couldn’t remember this, and so the bench agreed to the Crown’s request to destroy them. Fortunately, the campaign has already received a replacement banner from fellow anti-militarists in Germany.

Kirk and supporters outside Nottingham Magistrates' Court

Despite the disappointing verdict, Kirk remains positive. “I’m glad I took the case to trial,” he said. “Companies like Heckler & Koch are profiting from war and repression with the support of the UK government. The arms industry must be opposed.”

The six activists have been left with a total of £825 in fines plus costs but this is a fraction of the cost to the company of being closed down for a day. On an average working day, Heckler & Koch’s Nottingham unit exports over £35 000 of arms and makes more than £12 500 profit.

If you would like to help the activists to pay their costs, you can donate via the Shut Down H&K website.