Arms-exporting governments are reneging on their promises by failing to take into account the impact that the trade has on poverty, Oxfam says in a report published on Tuesday.
Sales are diverting resources from areas such as health and education.
The report, Guns or Growth, says six developing countries — Oman, Syria, Burma, Pakistan, Eritrea and Burundi — spend more on arms than they do on health and education combined.
It says governments that sell arms can assess the impact it will have on poverty, and that they should agree an international treaty to control the trade and safeguard sustainable development and human rights.
”Government failure to stick to their own promises on arms exports means that children are denied an education, Aids sufferers are not getting treatment and thousands are dying needlessly,” the director of Oxfam Great Britain, Barbara Stocking, said.
The report says:
in 2002 weapons delivered to Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa constituted more than two-thirds of the value of all arms deliveries worldwide
an average of $21-billion a year is spent on arms by countries in Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa: enough to to put every child in school and to reduce child mortality by two-thirds by 2015
in 2002, 90% of all arms deliveries to Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa came from the five permanent members of the UN security council.
in sub-Saharan Africa mili tary expenditure rose by 47% in the late 1990s and life expectancy has fallen to 46 years.
the world spends about $54 -billion on aid and $895-billion on defence.
in 2001 Tanzania spent $40-million on a British military Watchman radar system: enough to provide healthcare for 3,5-million people
corrupt practices are common. The industry comes second in the ”bribe payers index” of Transparency International.
Seventeen countries in the survey have signed agreements committing them to assess the impact that their arms exports have on sustainable development.
But only the British and Dutch governments consult their departments for international development when making decisions on arms exports. – Guardian Unlimited Â