Stop whingeing about how the police are intimidating you. You don't know what intimidation is. I've a friend who is a refugee who escaped as a child from the brutal civil war in Liberia to Sierra Leone. She met a British 'aid worker' from Medicine sans Frontieres (MSF) who got her pregnant and then returned to his wife in the UK. Then the war spilled over into Sierra Leone and she saw members of her family have their hands and arms cut off and all men in her community executed WITH BRITISH MADE ARMS! They tried hacking her hand off, but only succeeded in breaking her wrist and causing her a permanent disability in her left hand.

She fled to the UK with her boy and sought refuge. I met her on the train from London with her son and she said how lonely and afraid she felt. But things got worse. She faced racist taunts in the pub social services had put her in - the pub supplied B&B accommodation, but was frequented by soldiers of the Royal Engineers regiment from the local barracks who are, to say the least, a bunch of fascist thugs.

However, she still felt grateful for the material support she gained and, as a committed Christian, joined the local Methodist Church to get friends and worship. But after going through two of Africa's most violent and obscene wars, she was mentally disturbed and needed care which people like me or church-goers couldn't give her.

The British 'aid worker' started a custody battle for her son, the only thing that sustained her through all the crap she went through. Social services declared that she was unfit to care for the child and she lost her case.

She then fell apart completely and I lost touch with her. I talked to a policeman a few months ago and he said they were trying to get her help (the police actually took her side), because she had become a prostitute and had gone berserk on several occasions in the super-market. By that time, the court imposed an injunction on her that barred her from seeing her son because she was simply too unstable.

I bumped into her last week and was really shocked. She hadn't been eating and looked very ill. She wasn't making much sense and I could tell by her eyes that all hope had left her. I've seen desperate people living on the streets of London, but I have never seen someone in this state and it shocked me.

Her country endured war fuelled by the trade in diamonds and arms, helped by the UK. She tried to find sanctuary in the UK and all she got was pain, grief and torment.

For the sake of refugees like her, the arms trade bazaar should be stopped by any means necessary. For her sake, we've got to close down the factories that make these arms and put money into helping the victims of war.

Fuck!:(

What more can i say? I hope things work out and wish that all the gits laying into asylem seekers would read this piece

I realise the two tales are hardly comparable, given the situation in various countries in which intimidation takes on various forms. However that is not to justify the actions of those who were doing their 'job' that day. As tragic as the many tales are that come from Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Phillipines, Colombia etc it is still an issue that I feel should be brought to the attention of the public. Why do you feel it necessary to belittle those people in the U.K and other 'Democracies' in the Western world? Surely we are working to find mutual strength and solidarity. Does your friend suffering mean I have to turn my back on the anti arms movement purely because I am lucky enough live in a 'Democracy'. In fact the U.K has been in part responsible for many of these tragic tales and I feel obliged to compromise my own freedom in this country in order to highlight the wrongs going on around the world.

Every mutilated mine victim in Africa/Cambodia/Bosnia, is the victim of the UK arms trade, and all amputees. People are being disabled so they can not resist domination, or be self-sufficient by working the land. The trauma beggar's belief. Princess Diana tried to raise awareness of this, so MI6 murdered her.

Daniel, despite your well written, very harrowing piece on appalling personal tragedy caused by the sale of British arms, I think you have missed the original point by miles.

The very fact that the police are pre-emptively intimidating those very people of conscience who would try and close down an arms fair strikes me as the ultimate in oxymorons. They really are acting illegally here, in direct contravention to the ECHR.

You might find it instructive to study the court case against the Philadelphia police for what they did to puppet makers before the Republican National Convention last year - it seems their pre-emptive arrests have been declared totally illegal and they're now being effectively squeezed by Civil Rights lawyers for million$$.

Whatever the whinge, ~politically motivated~ action on the part of our police probably contravenes their own regulations. Brit civil rights lawyers will no doubt have a field day with this, IF they can get past the CPS!