CITIZEN ALERT v1.651000 PEOPLE A DAY

On the same day that a senseless tragedy struck the Amish community in Pennsylvania, Oxfam International released a report entitled Arms Without Borders - Why a globalized trade needs global controls.


Oxfam is confederation of NGOs that fight poverty and poverty related issues like: trade with their Make Trade Fair campaign made popular by the gentleman from Coldplay and arms control with their Control Arms campaign.

The report stated that "The globalization of the arms industry has opened up major loopholes in all current arms export regulations, allowing sales to human rights abusers and countries under arms embargoes."

It should come as no surprise that the US makes quite a bit of money as one of the leading suppliers of arms to the world. Oxfam's report revealed:

that US, EU and Canadian companies are among those able to circumvent arms regulations by selling weapon components and subcontracting arms manufacturing overseas. The report details how weapons, including attack helicopters and combat trucks, are being assembled from foreign components and manufactured under licence in countries including China, Egypt, India, Israel and Turkey.

The report shows how these or similar weapons have ended up in destinations such as Colombia, Sudan and Uzbekistan where they have reportedly been used for the killing and displacement of civilians, highlighting the urgent need for global rules to regulate an increasingly globalized industry.

The two major loopholes that countries like the US, UK, Russia, Germany and France are using are 1) selling the parts instead the whole weapon and 2) selling it from a different country. These five countries accounted for 82% of all conventional arms transfers in 2005. Want another stat? 1000 people a day die from armed violence. This is our export. This is our contribution to the world. Armed conflict. Death and destruction.

Irene Khan the Director General of Amnesty International along with Oxfam has called for an Arms Trade Treaty to prevent arms transfers into conflict zones while allowing the responsible transfer of weapons for policing, defense and peacekeeping.

I urge you to take a look at the report and see what the Control Arms campaign is doing to help stop the armed violence around the world.