Schoolgirls buy weapons to expose arms trade
A group of secondary school students bought leg irons and an electric shock baton over the internet to expose the lack of regulation of the arms trade, it emerged tonight.
The seven girls, who attend the Presentation School in Portlaoise, were taking part in a Channel Four Dispatches documentary on the arms trade.
They were able to order the shock baton from South Korea and the leg irons from South Africa by setting up a company called Seachtar (Seven) Associates in their school office.
“We e-mailed companies who sell serious weapons such as grenade launchers and and Uzi sub-machine guns,” said Maeve O’Sullivan, 18.
She read out an email from a Czech-arms company who said it would be a pleasure to co-operate with them and added that a discount would be available for large orders.
Sister Barbara Rafterty, a teacher at the Presentation school, said the students had been very careful not to order any illegal weapons.
“The big thing for us was to make sure that we weren’t breaking the law or doing anything illegal or immoral,” she said.
Sister Raftery, who worked in Pakistan for many years, said the purpose of the documentary had been to highlight the easy availability of small arms and torture weapons.
“It makes me very sad to tell you all today that Ireland is the only EU country to have absolutely no controls on arms brokering,” she said.
The Government has not implemented the EU common policy on arms brokering although it has promised legislation later this year.
The students agreed to take part in the project after being approached by Channel Four and the Irish charity AFRI last September. They set up an office in the Presentation Convent and used search engines to find the names of arms brokers on the internet.
In their emails, they pretended to be Hugh Masterson, a sales director but they occasionally had to talk to dealers on the phone.
Maeve O’Sullivan said that one South Korean dealer had poor English but was very friendly.
“He was as nice as when you’d go into a shop and you’re buying clothes. He was a lovely man which is ironic because of all the damage his company are doing.”
The students gave the delivery address of a human rights activist in California for the electric shock baton because the weapons are illegal in Ireland.
However, there were no restrictions to prevent them importing the leg irons from South Africa.
Student Margaret Hyland, 17, said that Amnesty Ireland had described the electric shock batons as the torturer’s weapon of choice.
“They are classified by most countries, including Ireland, as a weapon used for humiliating and degrading treatment. In prisons from China to Turkmenistan, from Algeria to Armenia, they’re used to inflict pain and force confessions from inmates.”
Amnesty International campaigns manager Jim Loughran said two Irish-registered companies, Limid Invest Limited and Balcombe Limited, had been involved in arms sales which had fuelled the brutal civil war in Liberia.
“And because there’s no legislation, no-one can do anything about it,” he said.
The Channel Four Dispatches documentary will be aired on April 3.
