Getting Confused by Structure of A Sentence

I have 3 comments, not necessarily to the point though. 1) The Guardian, as an American myself, is a jig-saw puzzle of the English language, as England-English and American-English are getting increasingly diverse. 2) I speak several languages, more to the point, I translate them better than speak them. However, the order of the translated language is always the hardest part about translating them. Especially French for some reason. Languages that don't use our script are even harder. First you have to translate the symbols, then you have to translate that into English. It's like a double translation. 3) iN eNGLISH, i PERSONALLY HAVE ALWAYS HAD A PROBLEM IN UNDERSTANDING WRITTEN OR SPOKEN eNGLISH WHEN WHAT i CALL ARE DOUBLE-NEGATIVES are used. Like - Talk to your teacher, if your teacher isn't busy, but if the teacher is busy, don't talk to another teacher but talk to an advisor unless that advisor directs you to a non-busy teacher unless he is not busy. Huh! I hate double-negatives! Excuse the Caps I used by mistake.

the government is selling arms...

to countries...

who have human rights records that have been strongly criticised...

by the government (selling the arms)...

according to (the list...cleared by...)

_____________

so... (countries) (are buying arms) (from the government)

"countries" = countries whose human rights records have been criticised

"that government" = the government selling the arms and security equipment

"the government" is being two-faced here, selling arms to countries that it criticizes...

In the sentence:

The government is selling arms and security equipment to countries whose human rights record it has strongly criticised, according to lists of weapons cleared for export that have been seen by the Guardian.

It does refer to the government. This use of the pronoun it makes better sense when reading it in the context of the entire sentence, than reading it in the context of the phrase you quoted, "countries whose human rights record it has strongly criticised."

But your point is well taken. Sloppy use of pronouns can lead to ambiguity.

Thank you all.
Wy, your explanation especially made me understand what it meant!
InfraBlue, I'd try hard to get it in the whole context.
Dov, I'm "glad" to hear you said that sentence beat you down.