You might think that while
the “fight against terrorism” is dominating international
agendas, there would be renewed interest in arms controls.
You’d be wrong.
Small arms, ‘weapons of mass destruction’ that
kill, maim, and terrorise every day, are in particular being
overlooked.
Since 11 September 2001, some countries
have relaxed controls in order to arm their new-found allies
against terrorism.
For example, the US government massively increased its military
aid to dozens of armed forces including some which even their
own State Department identified as having a ‘poor’ human
rights record or worse. In the UK, British arms cleared for
export to Indonesia rose from £2 million in 2000 to
more than £40 million in 2002, a twenty-fold increase,
despite the gross pattern of human rights violations committed
by the Indonesian armed forces. |
