WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

A group of non-governmental organizations have accused Spain of
exporting shells to Africa under the guise of ammunition for game
hunters. In 2002, Spain exported what it described as hunting and
target shooting ammunition to 10 African countries, according to the
report by Amnesty International, Oxfam, Greenpeace and the Spanish
group Peace Culture School. Yet what were supposed to be cartridges
for shooting wild animals were in fact shells weighing 40kg. Most
of the exports went to Ghana. The other destinations were Guinea-
Conakry, the Central African Republic, Mauritania, Ivory Coast,
Senegal, Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Burkina Faso and Cameroon. The NGOs
accused Spain of masking military exports as leisure equipment in
order to avoid controls.

The fact of the Spanish arms shipment is particularly interesting
when one considers that members of all political parties in Spain
pledged their support for an Arms Trade Treaty in front of the
country's media in the last year.

The legal and illicit trade in arms is, of course, a global scourge
that is only expanding.

In the 1990s, a decade of horrendous little wars, 47 of the 49
biggest conflicts were fought not with high-tech weaponry but with
small arms, yet the casualties were measured in the millions. The
United Nations reckons that small arms still kill about 300,000
people a year in conflict, most of them civilians. Add to that the
200,000 more gun deaths from homicides and suicides, and small arms
begin to look like weapons of mass destruction.

The War on Terror according to Amnesty International, Oxfam, and the
International Network on Small Arms has weakened national arms
controls and fuelled the proliferation of conventional weapons.
These groups have joined to together and are proposing an
international arms trade treaty which would outlaw weapons sales
involving exportation for use entailing "violations of international
human rights or humanitarian law". The plan will be presented to a
United Nations conference on small arms in 2006. "A new urgency has
been created by the so-called war on terror," said Irene Khan,
secretary general of Amnesty. "This is fuelling the proliferation of
weapons rather than combating it. Many countries, including the US,
have relaxed controls on sales of arms to allies known to have
appalling human rights records." The small arms trade has widespread
repercussions, especially in poor countries, Amnesty and Oxfam
say. "Weapons in the wrong hands prevent access to hospitals,
markets, schools, and productive land. Poverty fuels conflict and
vice versa, and the problem is compounded by corrupt, and often
scarce, official security forces. Weapons have permeated daily life
to such an extent that in northern Uganda AK-47s are replacing
spears; in Somalia some children are now named AK."

And in fact, the United States is more willing than ever to sell or
give away high technology weapons to countries that have pledged
assistance in the global war on terror, regardless of past behavior
or current status. In some cases, these recipients of U.S. military
goods and services are weak, failing, and failed states. Moreover,
the Bush administration has expressed a willingness to provide
weapons to countries that in the past have been criticized for human
rights violations, lack of democracy, and even support of terrorism,
even though it is a supposed standing tenet of U.S. policy that
weapon exports should not undermine long-term security and
stability, weaken democratic movements, support military coups,
escalate arms races, exacerbate ongoing conflicts, cause arms build-
ups in unstable regions, or be used to commit human rights abuses.

Honorary President of Oxfam International, Mary Robinson, speaking
at the World Social Forum in India said recently, "The sad reality
is that close to 90% of the small arms that get into illegal hands
are sold legally by countries - and the biggest sales are by the
five permanent members of the UN Security Council, the US, UK,
France, Russia and China." She added, "It is small arms that are
the weapons of mass destruction - in an average year, more than half
a million men, women & children are killed by small arms. Arms
proliferation and abuse have reached crisis point and that it is
poor people who are suffering the most." Sources: News 24 (South
Africa), Oxfam, Control Arms, Guardian, Center for Defense
Information, Scoop (New Zealand)

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