The Arms Code of Conduct

The US should stop arming dictators and death squads

Since the end of World War II, more than 25 million people have died in armed conflicts - and 90 percent of these casualties were civilians. The proliferation of conventional "small arms" (guns, grenades, mines, rifles, mortars) accounts for most of these casualties. The world's $2 billion-a-day global arms trade - mostly from rich to poor countries - fuels human rights abuses and undermines sustainable development.

In 1999, a commission of Nobel Peace Prize winners led by former Costa Rican President Oscar Arias drafted an International Code of Conduct to govern arms sales. A similar global agreement, the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, signed by 186 countries, is designed to pursue "general and complete disarmament under strict and effective international control."

The Arms Code of Conduct would require that any country wishing to buy arms first meet certain criteria - including respect for democracy and human rights. The code would ban sales to dictatorships, genocidal despots, and oppressive regimes.

This seemingly simple goal would pose a real dilemma for the United States and its infamous "military-industrial complex."

According to Demilitarization for Democracy [2001 S. St., NW, #630, Washington, DC 20009, (202) 319-7191, www.dfd.net], the Clinton administration has set a record for exporting $8.3 billion in arms to 52 countries identified by the US State Department as "non-democratic regimes." The biggest weapons shipments went to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, Thailand and Pakistan.

In addition to sales of military hardware, the US also provided military training to soldiers in 47 dictatorships.

On September 19, the London Guardian revealed that the Clinton White House had secretly armed, equip-ped and trained Indonesia's elite Kopassus "death squads," which have been linked to the deaths of 200,000 East Timorese. According to the Guardian, the program "codenamed 'Iron Balance,' was hidden from legislators and the public when Congress curbed the official schooling of Indonesia's army after a massacre in 1991." Members of the European Parliament, appalled by this irresponsible record, have challenged the US to abide by an Arms Trade Code of Conduct recently adopted by the European Union. - GS

What You Can Do: Contact your representatives and the White House to urge that the US support the International Code of Conduct on Arms Transfers. For more information, contact EarthAction [30 Cottage Street, Amherst, MA 01002 USA, (413) 549 8118, fax: (413) 549-0544, amherst@earthaction.org].

A BILL TO TURN BOMBS INTO JOBS

On July 30, Congresswoman Eleanor Norton (D-DC) introduced the Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act (HR 2545). The NDECA would not only require the US "to dismantle its nuclear weapons and refrain from replacing them with weapons of mass destruction" but would redirect the nuclear weapons budget "to address human and infrastructure needs such as housing, health care, education, agriculture and the environment." The bill was co-sponsored by Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) who has authored a bill (HR 82) calling on the US "to start multilateral negotiations to rid all countries of nuclear weapons" under the guidelines of the UN's Model Nuclear Weapons Convention.

There are now six different treaties calling for nuclear disarmament, but as Marcus Raskin, co-founder of Washington's Institute for Policy Studies (and a former White House staffer and disarmament negotiator) notes, "the US has done virtually nothing with regard to moving toward general and complete disarmament."

Physicians for Social Responsibility and the US office of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (winner of the 1998 Noble Peace Prize) are encouraging other congressmembers to co-sponsor Norton's bill.