No weapons for violators of human rights

The Swedish defence minister, Sten Tolgfors, resigned on Thursday in connection with the arms export affair involving Saudi Arabia. But in addition to Tolgfors' resignation the country should change its criteria for arms trade, the liberal daily Degans Nyheter warns: "In the past two weeks two things became clear. Firstly Sweden should not deliver any more armaments to regimes that consistently abuse human rights. This is wrong and the general population don't support it. Therefore a democratic criterion must be introduced. Secondly more transparency and possibilities for pulling the emergency brake are needed. The current system consisting of an exports control committee whose members can be gagged is inadequate. Sten Tolgfors' time as defence minister has ended. The investigation into the Saudi affair and the debate on Sweden's arms exports have not."

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