London, UK, September 23rd 2011 – In his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly, David Cameron argued for continued colonial interventions across the world but Britain’s continued support and arming of brutal dictators in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere exposes the dishonesty of his claims that intervention are for humanitarian reasons .
In May this year, it was revealed that Britain was training Saudi Arabia’s national guard – the elite security force that was used to crush the anti-regime protests in Bahrain earlier this year resulting in the murder of unarmed protesters and the arrest and torture of political opponents.
Commenting on the ‘Cameron doctrine’, Taji Mustafa, media representative of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain said: “The hypocrisy and duplicity of the British government is breathtaking. With one face Cameron preaches pious platitudes about intervening for humanitarian reasons, and gives Western powers a pat on the back for intervening against the UK’s former ally Gaddafi [who was being sold British weapons as late as February this year]. With the other, the UK continues to support and arm butchers in Bahrain – and elsewhere – and justifies the double standards with vague words like ‘the situation in different countries is different.’”
“Just as Blair outlined his ‘liberal interventionism’ in Chicago and the subsequent brutal invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, yesterday in New York, Cameron outlined his doctrine citing Libya as a justification. He argued for armed interventions to stop governments killing their own people but conveniently failed to mention Bahrain, whose crown prince he welcomed to Downing street in May 2011, and to whom the UK supplied ‘crowd control ammunition’.”
“None of us expect an imminent UK sponsored attack on Israel or Zimbabwe, nor is the UK going to stop selling arms to Saudi Arabia and other brutal regimes. This proves that western governments intervene not for some ‘humanitarian’ ideal, but to pursue political, economic and ideological agendas.”
“The governments of Britain and America talk strongly about democracy and human rights in regions where it suits them, but maintain the status quo when it suits them.”
“Much of his speech was focused on North Africa and the Middle East and Cameron again attacked the idea of an Islamic caliphate saying ‘people aren’t in Tahrir Square in Cairo and Freedom Square in Libya for an Islamist caliphate’ – omitting the fact that nearly a million people gathered in Tahrir Square a few weeks ago calling for Shari’ah.”
“Western leaders fear a loss of control, knowing that the only way the region will be truly independent from western colonial interference is when the corrupt and tyrannical regimes they back are replaced by a new system – the Caliphate, which will stand up to western imperialism in all its forms, and look out for the interests of the people.”
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