Stop Arming Saudi Arabia!

Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi disappeared on October 2 after entering a Saudi consulate in Turkey in #Istanbul. Latest reports suggest that Khashoggi was presumably murdered by the Saudi officials inside the building after an interrogation.

Today as the whole world expects an investigation that would provide an explanation to this Orwelian story, the Saudi authorities and the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammaed bin Salman himself keep silence and try their best to bring this story behind them. Despite recent claims about the new Crown being progressive, the murder of Jamal Khashoggi only reveals and confirms that the Saudi authorities use criminal techniques against the critical voices while ignoring all international conventions on human rights and diplomatic agreements.

And yet, the most striking fact here is that the international community and democratic states do not only remain silent about those crimes, but also support the regime to commit them! SaudiArabia has arguably the worst record in the world of women’s rights, freedom of speech and rights of minorities. The regime is involved in war crimes in Yemen and repeatedly commits atrocities against women, minorities and decedents inside the Kingdom. And yet, Saudi Arabia is a member of the UN Human Rights Council and in 2015 even was appointed a Chair of the UNHRC Advisory Committee. Moreover, the USA, the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Sweden are among the biggest exporters of arms to Saudi Arabia. While the fascist Saudi regime keeps murdering the innocents, make no mistake, the democratic states assist the regime in those crimes. According to Amnesty International, between 2015 and 2017, Spain exported arms to Saudi Arabia worth EUR 932 million and authorised licences worth EUR 1,235 million. Germany, being among top 5 arms exporters in the world, despite the agreement in governing coalition to stop exporting arms to Saudi Arabia, continue to supply the regime with weapons as four new artillery radar systems were delivered to Saudi Arabia early September. France also counts Saudi Arabia alongside with United Arab Emirates among its biggest arm purchaser.

FEMEN activists in Germany, Spain and France call their governments to take responsibility in supporting the criminal Saudi regime and indirectly authorising and assisting in the atrocities and human rights violations by the monarchy. We demand from our governments to stop supplying the fascist regime with weapons. The disappearance and the murder of Jamal Khashoggi has to become a turning point in the relationship between the democratic states and Saudi Arabia. International community can not afford to stay silent, but more importantly, democratic states, if they are truly democratic, can not continue assist the oppression of women and the persecutions of dissidents and minorities by the Saudi regime.