DISARMAMENT: Five Big Powers Lukewarm Towards Arms Curbs

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 16 2001 (IPS) - A leading human rights organisation is accusing the UN’s five major powers – who are also the world’s key arms exporters – of dragging their feet over a move to curb the production and flow of small arms into the world’s war zones.

The Washington-based Human Rights Watch says the five veto- wielding permanent members of the Security Council – namely the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia – are using every procedural trick to derail an upcoming UN conference on small arms.

“There is no need to look any further than the five permanent members of the Security Council,” says Joost Hiltermann, executive director of the Arms Division of Human Rights Watch.

Two of those States, namely China and Russia, are completely opposed to the process. But that position should not surprise anyone, he added.

“Russian arms were flooding conflict zones in Africa and Central Asia, while China scrupulously made sure to supply human rights abusers on both sides of conflicts in those regions,” Hiltermann pointed out.

Both China and Russia, along with countries such as India and Israel, held the position that it was imperative to limit the scope of the conference only to the illicit trade in small arms, not the legal trade, he said. The other three permanent members, namely the United States, Britain and France, were “lukewarm towards the process”.

In fact, no one was sure where the United States stood in relation to the conference. “Perhaps the United States is just waiting for Russia and China to torpedo the process,” he added.

According to the current issue of ‘World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers’ published by the US State Department, the total value of global arms sales during 1995-1997 was 141.6 billion dollars. The five big powers at the United Nations were among the world’s top six arms exporters.

The United States accounted for 77.7 billion dollars in arms sales during 1995-1997, Britain about 18 billion dollars, France 12 billion dollars, Russia 9.2 billion dollars, Germany 3.8 billion dollars and China 2.4 billion dollars.

Although the big ticket items were mostly fighter aircraft, combat helicopters, warships, missiles and battle tanks, the arms transfers also included a wide variety of small arms which are the weapons of choice in most ongoing conflicts.

A UN arms expert panel has identified “small arms” to include assault rifles, pistols, sub-machine guns, light machine guns, mortars, portable anti-aircraft guns, grenade launchers, anti-tank missile and rocket systems, hand grenades and anti-personnel land mines.

Beginning last week, the United Nations has been holding a two- week preparatory meeting as a run-up to a major UN conference on the ‘Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons’ scheduled to take place in New York Jul. 9- 20.

The meeting, which ends Friday, is discussing both substantive and procedural issues relating to the conference. The conference will approve a programme of action to help curb the flow of small arms and adopt a political declaration setting out commitments by the UN’s 189 member states.

Perhaps the most sensitive issue before the conference will be the question of balancing the sovereign right of States to safeguard their national security with the pressing need to regulate the proliferation of small arms and light weapons.

Hiltermann told IPS that the five big powers are playing a cautious game. “They are giving the appearance of playing according to the rules. But I am not sure how genuine and serious they are.”

The conference could come up either with a politically-binding – or more unlikely – a legally-binding declaration on small arms.

“We can live with a politically-binding document,” Hiltermann said but there is “a lot of resistance” even to such a document.

However, he pointed out that there were several States, including South Africa, Canada, Norway, Nigeria, Belgium, Mexico and Australia, who want the upcoming conference to succeed in its most ambitious objectives.

Last week a coalition of about 280 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from 70 countries urged governments to curb the global trafficking in small arms which is responsible for the deaths of hundreds and thousands of civilians worldwide.

The International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) said about half a billion of these weapons were currently in circulation outside lawful control.

The coalition does not want the conference to be limited just to illicit arms primarily because a large proportion of illicit arms originate in the legal trade. But several arms exporting nations, including China, are opposed to any curbs on the legal trade in small arms.

The coalition is not only seeking to regulate the governmental trade in small arms but also to institute stricter export controls cutting off all supplies to human rights abusers. Further, it is also seeking to improve transparency in arms transfers.