Guest guest Posted March 6, 2006 Report Share Posted March 6, 2006 The London Book Fair, Democracy in action, Shoot first The London Book Fair Sir, – The London Book Fair reflects the benign internationalism that can come from the business of writing. Later this week its stands and seminars will host visitors from eighty countries. The commerce of bookselling traces the contours of an international conversation about books across political and geographical divisions. It comes as a shock, then, to discover that the London Book Fair has now become connected to an equally global trade that fundamentally undermines peaceful internationalism, fuelling conflict and impoverishment in the world’s poorest regions. Its organizer Reed Exhibitions, owned by the publisher Reed Elsevier, has since 2003 accumulated a portfolio of arms fairs which grease the wheels of the global weapons trade. Last September the Book Fair’s own venue, London’s ExCel Centre, hosted Reed Exhibitions’ crown jewel: Defence Systems and Equipment International (DSEi), Europe’s largest arms fair. On offer at DSEi was weaponry ranging from small arms, the cause of an estimated 500,000 deaths each year, to tanks and cluster bombs. Reed Exhibitions have publicly insisted that “the defence industry is central to the preservation of freedom and national securityâ€. Yet military buyers were invited from some of the world’s most violent and repressive regimes, including Colombia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and China, currently subject to a United Nations arms embargo. Reed claims that its arms fairs are subject to “the highest standards of scrutiny and compliance with the lawâ€. Yet at a DSEi fair more than one company was found openly (and illegally) advertising torture equipment. Despite opposition from the local community, London’s mayor and even the Metropolitan Police, Reed Elsevier plans to bring its arms fair back to London in 2007. We are appalled that our trade should be commercially connected to one which exacerbates insecurity and repression, and which props up regimes inimical to free expression. We call upon Reed Elsevier to end its involvement in a dirty and damaging business; and upon our colleagues to encourage Reed Elsevier to take the book trade out of the arms trade. A. S. BYATT J. M. COETZEE JOHN CAREY NADINE GORDIMER MARK HADDON NICK HORNBY MIKE LEIGH IAN MCEWAN YANN MARTEL WILL SELF GRAHAM SWIFT ADAM THORPE ARABELLA WEIR Campaign Against Arms Trade, 11 Goodwin Street, Finsbury Park, London N4. Copyright 2006 The Times Literary Supplement Ltd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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