DECEMBER 2005

Police used 'dum dum' bullets to kill de Menezes after the London bombings
: http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/11/16/nmenez16.xml

Observer
By Jason Burke and Brian Johnson-Thomas
Sunday November 19, 2000
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4093163-102285,00.html

British police forces are buying millions of a controversial type of bullet made by the Israeli Army and similar to those used in recent weeks in the Middle East to shoot Palestinian protesters.

Weapons experts say using the bullets in a war would be against the Geneva Convention. In total, the deals are thought to have been worth more than £1m.

The bullets, known as soft-point rounds, are distributed by a British company on behalf of Israeli Military Industries (IMI) - the partly privatised commercial wing of the Israeli Defence Force (IDF). They are favoured by IDF snipers deployed in the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem and the West Bank and are thought to have been used in a number of assassinations by Israeli secret services.

Soft-point rounds are similar to the infamous 'dumdum' bullets which spread on impact to inflict appalling wounds. In America, soft-point type ammunition is advertised for its 'reliable expansion' within the body after impact and its 'deeper penetration'. Police in New York were severely criticised over its use several years ago.

Jacketed soft-point bullets in use by British police are designed for stopping power and accuracy. Senior officers last week said that they are a 'useful compromise'.

'They are less likely to travel through a target and hit an innocent victim and so are safer, but they will also stop someone without causing horrific damage. Or at least as much damage as a fully soft-tipped round,' one former firearms officer told The Observer .

However, their use and their purchase from the Israelis will be controversial. The IDF has been criticised by Amnesty International for reacting, in some instances, with disproportionate force to Palestinian protests. The human rights organisation has called for a war crimes investigation.

Soft-point rounds have also been used by Mexican security forces against the Zapatista rebels in the Chiapas region of the country.

Documents obtained by The Observer show that South Wales police concluded a deal to buy thousands of 9mm 'semi-jacketed soft-point' rounds from Samson Distraco UK, which are made in Israel, in October last year. Contract documents lodged with the European Union in Luxembourg show that the Metropolitan Police has also been buying a range of ammunition, including soft-point bullets, from the company for several years. A spokesperson for the Met refused to discuss individual contracts last week beyond saying that the force 'has to comply with the Police Scientific Development Branch national guidelines for the use of ammunition'.

The Geneva Convention only covers the actions of a state that has declared war on another state. If soft-point rounds are used against a nation's own citizens, as in Israel, it does not apply.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005  


http://www.zmag.org/sammonds.htm 

"In the last few years Britain has supported the Israeli military complex by buying bullets, bomblets, grenades and jet-fighter training systems and is in the process of buying the Gill-Spike anti-tank missile."   "Personnel within the British government are closer to their counterparts in Israel to an unprecedented degree. 57 Labour MPs have made visits to Israel since 1997, the largest number from any British government to date. Four of the previous five Ministers with Responsibility for the Middle East have been active members of Labour Friends of Israel. And Lord Levy, Tony Blair’s Special Envoy to the Middle East, the former chair of the Jewish Israel Appeal, former board member of the Jewish Agency, has both a business and house in Israel and had a son working for the Israeli Justice Minister"