UKIP Donor Backed Dictators and War Criminals

Earlier this month The Electoral Commission released details of a number of funders who had donated large amounts of money to Nigel Farage’s UKIP.

One former Tory donor, Mayfair nightclub owner Robin Birley donated £50,000 to the coffers of the xenophobic party in the hopes of boosting the chances of the party at election time.

Birley is the step-brother of Tory MP Zac Goldsmith. As a teenager he was mauled by a tiger at a private zoo of family friend John Aspinall. The bones on one side of his face were crushed and Birley has had to endure years of plastic surgery.

However, it is his political life that is of most interest to Hope not hate.

In 1998, Birley began to work with the pro Pinochet Chilean Supporters Abroad organisation. Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet was at the time under house arrest indicted for human rights violations committed in his native country. The Rettig Report found that at least 2,279 persons were murdered by the Chilean government for political reasons during Pinochet’s regime, and the Valech Report found that at least 30,000 persons were tortured by the government for political reasons.

Birley welcomed the dictator to the UK with open arms and financed an extravagant residence for the elderly despot in Wentworth, Surrey. Birley also funded a pro-Pinochet booklet and said of the Chilean dictator “It’s also an abuse of hospitality to ambush an old man when he has come to this country year after year. He has done an immense amount for Chile. No one is supporting him and I have sympathy for the underdog.”

In the early 1990’s Robin Birley was also president of the Mozambique Institute which supported RENAMO, the South African backed force that systematically committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during the civil war in Mozambique including mass killings and mutilation of innocent men, women and children during raids on villages and towns. RENAMO became notorious for the abduction of children in order to use them as child soldiers and it is estimated that one third of RENAMO forces were under 18 years of age.

Hope not Hate