DM Monitoring
New Delhi: In a big snub to India, over its “poor human rights record” in the illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the German government declined license to two firms planning small arms export.
Though Germany is India’s sixth-largest trading partner and its largest trading partner from the European Union, it feared that their small arms could be used against the civilian population in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
The massive human rights violations like military siege for the last 565 days since August 5, 2019, communication blackout, false incrimination of the innocent civilians have raised eyebrows of the international community with human rights organizations questioning the aggression against Kashmiri people fighting for their right to self-determination guaranteed under UN Security Resolutions. According to a report published in Telegraph India, the concerns over the security forces’ human rights record in Jammu and Kashmir had raised a barrier before Germany’s small arms exports to India.
German regulations and covenants restrict, and often prohibit, arms sales to nations or regions where their use might cause direct or collateral damage to civilian populations and institutions.
Two Indian security officials familiar with the bar on German small arms producers said these companies had failed to obtain export licences from their government on account of the “poor human rights record” in Kashmir.
The report also revealed that a Belgian arms manufacturer too had recently walked out of a deal to supply arms to India’s army amid concerns in the Belgian government that the weapons would be used in Jammu and Kashmir.
Belgium’s FN Herstal had signed the Rs 70-crore deal in 2020 to supply small arms and assault rifles to the army’s Special Frontier Force (SFF). Reports have said that German arms manufacturer Heckler and Koch, whose MP5 submachine guns have been part of the armoury of the National Security Guards (NSG) and Marine Commando (Marcos) units, has withdrawn from the Indian market saying it lacked approval from the German government.
“After being rebuffed by Germany, the defence ministry has decided to procure US-made assault rifles,” a security official said. In November 2019, three months after the Centre had revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and restricted movement and communication, Germany had expressed reservations about the clampdown and concern for the people of the region.
