The National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) on Monday rejected claims made by the Democratic Alliance regarding South African arms sales to Haiti.
In a statement, the NCACC said it had approved the sale of ”a modest amount of material”, as well as bulletproof vests, for the police force of the Haitian government to assist in maintaining safety and security.
”Accusations of impropriety by the DA’s [federal council chairperson] Mr James Selfe, as reported in the press, are simply untrue.
”First, Selfe claims that the NCACC did not apply the criteria of the [National Conventional Arms Control] Act. This claim is false.
”When we reviewed the request from the Caribbean Community [Caricom], a legitimate regional body representing 15 nations, we applied the relevant criteria of the Act,” the statement said.
”Reviewing arms sales on a case-by-case basis, as the Act requires, we found that this case met the standards of contributing to regional security, which was the basis of the request from Caricom, and the protection of the national sovereignty of a member country of the United Nations with a democratically elected government.”
Secondly, Selfe claimed that nothing in the Act provided for ”assisting a sovereign state in maintaining its territorial integrity”.
”This claim is false. Selfe narrows the meaning of the Act, which explicitly requires also the NCACC to ‘take into account the inherent right of individual and collective self-defence of all sovereign countries in terms of the United Nations Charter’.
”Arbitrarily, he thinks this provision refers only to conflict between two states.”
According to many observers, there had been external interference in the conflict in Haiti.
Nevertheless, there was nothing in the Act specifying that self-defence of national sovereignty applied only to situations of direct attack by another sovereign nation.
Thirdly, Selfe claimed the NCACC did not observe the provisions of the Act prohibiting the sale of arms to countries that systematically violated human rights or systematically repressed freedom.
”This claim is false. Applying these criteria carefully, the NCACC found no credible evidence of systematic repression of human rights violations or repression of democracy by the Haitian government.”
Any report of human rights abuses was a concern. But accusations of ”gross human rights violations” by the democratically elected government of Haiti had not been substantiated.
”Any appearance of the repression of democratic freedoms, of course, is a concern. But the Haitian democratic elections of 2000, in which [former] president Jean-Bertrand Aristide received the support of an overwhelming popular majority, were found by independent monitors to be substantially free and fair.
”The DA’s attacks on the NCACC have not helped in the public understanding of this crucial oversight committee, nor in the public understanding of the tragic situation in Haiti.
”Looking beyond the DA’s electioneering, we can take this opportunity to acknowledge the important monitoring role of the NCACC in ensuring that we observe the highest standards of human rights, democratic values and international law under the Charter of the United Nations,” the statement said.
The NCACC is chaired by Education Minister Kader Asmal.
Earlier on Monday, Selfe said the DA was using the Promotion of Access to Information Act to ”get to the bottom of the Haiti arms shipment fiasco”. — Sapa
DA calls for arms shipment details