DISARMAMENT-SPAIN: Broad Support for Controls of Arms Exports

By Tito Drago Reprint | | Print |

Tito Drago

MADRID, Nov 14 2001 (IPS) - All of the parties represented in the Spanish parliament agree with the need to regulate sales and exports of weapons, while the local branches of four leading non- governmental organisations (NGOs) have launched a campaign to that end.

The centre-right governing Popular Party’s (PP) spokesman on defence questions, Manuel Atencia, told IPS Wednesday that the party’s parliamentarians would vote in favour of a proposal to regulate sales and exports of arms.

The motion, which will not have the status of a law but will be binding on all government institutions, was introduced earlier this year by the rest of the parties in parliament, and is slated for debate in the lower house before the end of the month.

The local branches of Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Oxfam and Doctors Without Borders, along with the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) Chair for peace and human rights at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, launched the “Adios a las Armas” campaign, which has already drummed up wide support.

On Tuesday, the four NGOs presented the president of Congress with a document in which 300 city governments, 11 provincial councils and four of Spain’s 17 provincial parliaments urged the government to increase control over and transparency in weapons sales.

Vicenç Fisas, the campaign coordinator, stressed that the support of the local governments represented the backing of 10.5 of Spain’s 40 million people.

The four NGOS and the UNESCO Chair maintain that Spain’s arms exports amount to at least twice the 125 million dollars in sales admitted by the government.

Fisas said 90 percent of deaths and injuries occurring in today’s armed conflicts are caused by light arms like pistols, revolvers, rifles, grenade-throwers, hand grenades, anti-personnel landmines and police material.

Ninety percent of the victims of armed conflicts are civilians, and women and children are the most vulnerable and most heavily affected, he added.

The NGOs are demanding that the secrecy surrounding Spain’s arms exports be eliminated. An authorised source at the State Secretariat on Commerce confirmed to IPS that the companies selling weapons and their buyers are not identified.

However, the source added that Spain follows the standards adopted by the European Union and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) – whose 30 members include all of the world’s industrialised nations – according to which customs agencies control what enters and exits each country.

But there are discrepancies regarding the definition of “weapons of war”, he added. For example, while the Spanish government does not consider hunting shotguns war material, the NGOs carrying out the campaign do. Spain is a country with a strong hunting tradition, that exports hunting material.

Nor does the government categorise personnel carrier aircraft, flight simulators, training material and certain light arms and munitions as weapons of war, said Fisas.

The UNESCO Chair, however, does consider them weapons of war, based on the “common list of military equipment” approved by the Council of the European Union on Jun 13, 2000.

The Spanish government admitted to selling arms last year to countries like Saudi Arabia, Colombia, United Arab Emirates, India, Indonesia, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Turkey, which together account for more than one-fourth of all of the country’s arms exports, said Fisas.

None of those countries complies with the Code of Conduct on Arms Exports adopted by the Council of the European Union in 1998, he said.

Nor did the government consider sales of aircraft to Austria, France and the Dominican Republic, a second-hand ship to Mauritania, and patrol vehicles and trucks to Cameroon as arms exports.

“The only thing lacking now is, if knives are exported and aren’t used to peel apples or oranges, but for a street fight, they’ll be classified as weapons of war,” the source at the Secretariat of Commerce told IPS.

The NGOs also reported that revolvers, pistols and munitions were exported under the category of “bolts and locks.”

The governmental Sociedad Estatal de Participaciones Industriales promoted and authorised enormous investments by General Dynamics, a leading US defence contractor, in the northwestern region of Galicia, said Fisas.

General Dynamics plans to convert an old weapons factory in the region into one of the world’s most modern light weapons plants, “with an obvious focus on the export market,” he said.

“If the government wants to promote a light arms industry and become a leader in exporting death, it should say so clearly, and defend that intention before the United Nations,” said Fisas.

However, “if it is convinced there is a pressing need to control that activity, it should be coherent and begin to take measures at home,” he said.