Berlin -- German weapons are being used to suppress peaceful protests in Bahrain, said a senior legislator of the opposition party The Left (Die Linke) here Wednesday.
Addressing the German parliament during a live debate on the upheavals in the
Arab world, Wolfgang Gehrcke pointed out that part of the weapons deployed by Bahrain's security forces against anti-government protesters were supplied by Germany.
The foreign policy spokesman of The Left party called for an 'immediate end' to the
delivery of German arms to the Bahraini regime.
Germany's overall arms export to the Near-and Middle East hovers around 1.1 billion euros and includes other recipient countries like Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
In 2009, the United Arab Emirates was among the three leading recipients of German weapons, according to the latest report released by the German government.
The tiny Persian Gulf sheikdom was ranked second after the US in terms of total German arms exports last year which stood at 5.04 billion Euros.
Germany sold around 540.7 million Euros worth of military hardware to the UAE, among them radar and steering systems, torpedoes, simulators, missiles, hand grenades, armored vehicles, tank spare parts, automatic cannons, amphibious vehicles and trucks.
Meanwhile, another Persian Gulf country, Saudi Arabia, was listed sixth in the
overall export of German weaponry with 167.9 million Euros.
German military gadgetry to the Arabian country included airplanes, spare
parts for combat jets, missile parts, refueling aircraft, grenades, sea mine removal instruments and communication systems.
Critics have slammed German arms exports to the volatile Middle East region
since the German constitution bans the sale of weapons to a crisis area. (IRNA)
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