Invest in Hungry Children, Not Weapons
by Oscar Arias, Former President of Costa Rica and 1987 Nobel Peace Prize Winner
Published in the Thursday, July 31, 1997 Los Angeles Times
[A]s the world's foremost arms merchant, the United States
has a responsibility to take the lead in curbing the
weapons trade. Since 1991, the United States has entered into
more new agreements to sell arms than all the other major
arms suppliers combined. Shamefully, the five permanent
members of the United Nations Security Council--the United
States, Russia, China, France and Britain--supply 85% of all
weapons delivered on the international market.
This situation is simply unacceptable. The world's major
powers must recognize that they cannot create a world at
peace by promoting arms sales in the name of short-term
profits or political expediency.
The continued support of this commerce in death wreaks
havoc and disaster for innocent civilians around the world.
Since the end of World War II, most deaths during violent
conflicts have occurred in the developing world. Not
surprisingly, most of these skirmishes were fueled and kept
alive by weapons that flow freely from the developed nations.
Kuwait, Somalia, Bosnia, Rwanda, Zaire--the roll call of
nations that have suffered the ravages of armed conflict
during this decade is far too long.
Fifteen Nobel laureates have joined me in drafting an
international code of conduct on arms transfers. The code
asks that weapons-producing countries refrain from selling
arms to states that live under dictatorships, commit human
rights abuses or are engaged in aggression against other
nations or peoples. We must begin to build a new security
paradigm that gives precedence to addressing basic human
needs for food, shelter, health care and personal safety
rather than to amassing armaments and expending arsenals.
Unfortunately, as the turn of the century approaches, most
leaders show more short-term concern for expanding global
markets than for investing in education, affordable housing
and health care. In 1996, the U.S. government gave arms
manufacturers $7 billion in subsidies to export their wares.
In today's world, where nearly 1 billion people are
illiterate, more than 1 billion lack access to potable water
and 1.3 billion earn less than $1 a day, the arms trade
simply perpetuates poverty. Our children need schools, not
tanks; playgrounds, not guns; health clinics, not fighter
jets.
The United States now has an unprecedented opportunity
to take the lead in this international effort. Congress is
considering an arms transfers code of conduct bill
cosponsored in the House by Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) and Dana
Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach) and in the Senate by John
Kerry (D-Mass.). The bill rests with a House-Senate
conference committee that may finish deliberations as early
as this week.
Human security, not just national security, must be our
mantra for the 21st century. By adopting the code of conduct,
Congress can begin to deconstruct the military-dominated
mind-set that prevailed throughout the Cold War and move
toward a more sustainable ideology of stability and peace.
- - -
Copyright Los Angeles Times
Arms Trade: A bill in Congress would begin deconstructing the military mind-set of the Cold War.
