Copex Arms Fair

On 5th November the main gate into the Copex Arms Fair at Sandown Park, Esher, was completely closed for the day, forcing attending vehicles into a side gate and through a large police cordon. Over five hundred people took part in the protest, organised by Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) and it was good to see such a mix of people all ages and backgrounds from all over the country, brought together by their disgust at the arms trade display at Copex. The people of East Timor, Tibet, Iran and Columbia were amongst those remembered with particular relevance to Copex. Indonesia, China, Iran, Columbia and Turkey are all torturing states known to have attended Copex in recent years. Copex was of course, exposed as a market place for electric shock batons and other torture equipment to these countries, among others.

Initially the main gate blockade took the form of a ‘Remembrance Ceremony’, which opened with a two minute silence followed by speakers from a number of third world support groups stepping forward to bear witness to the atrocities committed with British weapons. The blockade was then extended to other gates with five arrests being made.

Throughout the day both small and large groups of people outwitted the huge police presence by breaking into the grounds and getting over to the buildings. At one point a group of about thirty people made it to the steps where they remained hassling Copex attendees entering the fair, until the flustered police got it together to remove them one by one. At one point a group of people decided to take a different approach and galloped along the racecourse in the direction of the main building with police baffled for a while as to how to get to them in vehicles.

As the fair ended at 6pm the blockade was lifted and a silent torch-lit procession made it’s way back to the assembly point.

Hopefully next year the protest outside Copex will grow even bigger, not only putting pressure on Copex to close down, but on the government to close down all aspects of the torture trade completely. For more information call CAAT on: 0171 281 0297.