According to a UNESCO
report concerning Peace and Human Rights prepared by the Autonomous University
of Barcelona, Spain sells weapons to seventeen countries which do not comply
with criteria established in European legislation. 10 of these countries are
involved in conflicts, and thirteen are responsible for systematically
violating human rights. At the head of the list is Turkey, Europe's most
militarised country, currently in conflict with Kurds and with Greece, as well
as having been reported on numerous occasions for human rights violations.
3,655 million pesetas' worth of weaponry was sold to Turkey.
A code
of conduct, passed by the Council of Europe in 1998. establishes eight
conditions which need to be met before arms can be sold to a country. These
include: respecting international embargoes, human rights, possible
conflicts of security, attitudes towards terrorism and the possible risk of
arms being diverted onto the black market. The report was compiled at the
request of various NGOs, including Amnesty International, Greenpeace, Intermon
and Medicos sin Fronteras. Eighteen parameters were used to measure compliance
with the conditions. For example, if a country has signed international
treaties, if military spending is more than 4% of GNP, if the death penalty is
applied and so on. The countries which failed to comply with the most
conditions were Afghanistan, Eritrea and Myan-mar. followed by the Congo. Iraq,
Sierra Leone and Sudan. |
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The report says that during the
first six months of last year, Spain sold arms worth 20.000 million pesetas,
some 5,000 million more than official government figures. "Not a single penny
of naval spending is included, nor is much of munitions or transport
aeroplanes, although they are for military use," says Vincent
Fisas, head of the UNESCO chair at the university. Arms have also been sold to
countries under international embargoes, such as Bosnia, Croatia and Indonesia.
In this lastcase, the Government says that licences for export were granted
before the embargo started.The sale of light arms is not recognised as armament
export. However, as Carlos Bravo of Greenpeace points out, these are
responsible for 90% of the victims in conflicts. Where there's money to be
made.. (F) |