Syria is proof we need a global arms-trade treaty
11:28 am - July 4th 2012
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contribution by Jack Barker
For over a year the ruthless Assad dictatorship in Syria has terrorised and murdered thousands of its own people. The bodies of adults and children have been burnt and destroyed by the Assad army.
The US government has alleged that Russia is sending attack helicopters to the regime and warned that Syria’s conflict could become even deadlier. Russia has continued to insist that any arms it supplies to the country are not being used to suppress anti-government dissent.
But Russia isn’t the only one responsible for the deadly but booming arms trade- $45-60 billion arms sales are agreed each year.
It is one of most corrupt trades in world, a lot of the arms that western governments have sold have gone into the hands of military dictatorships or corrupt governments. Tea gas grenades used by Egypt security forces to gas their own citizens in November 2011 were supplied by the US, some were even made in the UK.
A recent Amnesty report highlighted how the UK, USA, France and other countries sent weapons to Libya, Bahrain and Yemen despite clear signs that these weapons would be used by repressive governments against its own civilians.
We have treaties to regulate the global trade of many products, even Bananas, dinosaur bones, postage stamps, but not guns & bullets- there is virtually no accountability on how weapons are traded between countries, or how they are used.
There will be a meeting at the United Nations in New York next month, where countries from around the world will gather to negotiate the first-ever international arms trade treaty.
The aim of such a treaty is to have a globally agreed set of standards to regulate the trade of all conventional arms, stopping the sale of weapons to places that pose a serious risk to human rights.
A draft treaty has already been published, which – if adopted – would ban all weapons sales to countries that could use them to abuse human rights, or encourage corruption or armed violence. Most countries support the idea of such a treaty, but under pressure from their own arms industry, some want it watered down. China, India, Pakistan want to leave out small arms like machine guns & assault weapons. US wants to leave out bullets.
The UK government must take a leading role in the international talks to secure a binding and comprehensive arms trade treaty to stem the flow of weapons and ammunition to rights abusing governments.
The world needs a bullet proof arms trade treaty. Please email your MP now asking them to support one
http://action.amnesty.org.uk/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1194&ea.campaign.id=14684
Here’s some further information
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Jack blogs about global issues such as climate change & human rights and runs a political debating page on Facebook. A longer version of this article is here
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This is a guest post.
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Story Filed Under: Blog ,Foreign affairs ,Realpolitik ,Terrorism
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Reader comments
Was it not Peter Hain who said hold on a minute what about the 10,000 workers who build planes tanks and make bullets .
I would ask have you been to Syria have you seen the dead bodies and the burning, because to me both sides are trying to get countries to come out and fight it’s war.
But look at where we have been involved Iraq is now a nice area to live, the chap running it is Saddam mark two an American puppet.
Afghanistan when we leave in 2014 what will it be like my guess a civil war.
Libya has turned out well has it not, remove one dictator to get another, I just think we should stay out of it, and this might mean not voting again for the new labour puppets and this lot are new labour.
War should be a last resort not to give a leader the Millions he wants.
“We have treaties to regulate the global trade of many products, even Bananas, dinosaur bones, postage stamps, but not guns & bullets- there is virtually no accountability on how weapons are traded between countries, or how they are used.”
You try shipping arms without an end user certificate and an export licence and you’ll find just just how much regulation there is of the arms trade.
In that particular point sorry, but you’re spouting piffle.
Those workers skills are better utilised repairing the damage the linked military industrial complex and fossil fuel industrial complex has done worldwide. We pay taxes to subsidise mass murder, by both, yet saving the environment and our civilisation are questioned, even claimed to be a conspiracy.
The likes of Assad et al have no power without WMD (guns, tanks, APC’s etc are WMD, because of the global death rate from them) We pay taxes to subsidise their acquisiton of WMD…
A certificate to trade with dictators is as easy to get for BAE as slipping the right ones a brown paper envelope!
Says it all.
Why are the last nazi war criminals, like Alois Bruner, hiding in Syria? Nesselrode sent Porphy Uspensky to de-Hellenize the Antiochians which led to Michel Aflaq founding the Nazi Ba’ath party which is why ras-Putin hid Saddam’s WMD in Syria! Ohlig & Puim show Islamic extremism came from Syriac miaphysates, products of Chrysustolm trying to consummate the Channukah crimes of his Seleucid forefathers. (“Questioning is the subversion of faith” Homily I on I Timothy I- Such was the dark mind that led Justinian to abolish the universities and Olympics and bring on the plagues.) Ochrafuxy is the mother of Islam and bolshevism because they reject Aristotle in favor of Plato. We need a Christian Samaritania buffer state surrounding Israel. We need to give the Balkans back to the aboriginal Albanian Pelasgians to prevent soviet access to the straits. Iran and North Korea both share borders with Russia and are ras-Putin’s ploy to raise oil prices which is why we must fearlessly pursue the therminucular rapture against the magog’s attempt to destabilize the Saudis.
Reactions: Twitter, blogs
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Liberal Conspiracy
Syria is proof we need a global arms-trade treaty http://t.co/fP87mvRX
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Jason Brickley
Syria is proof we need a global arms-trade treaty http://t.co/CGGHahOU
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leftlinks
Liberal Conspiracy – Syria is proof we need a global arms-trade treaty http://t.co/MajzxSHf
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veritas justice
Syria is proof we need a global arms-trade treaty http://t.co/fP87mvRX
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Paul Erickson
Liberal Conspiracy: #Syria is proof we need a #global #arms-#trade #treaty http://t.co/ZIag9JUS #weapons #Mideast
Necessary, unlikely.
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UPDATE: Syria is proof we need a global arms-trade treaty | Liberal Conspiracy « Regional Wars!
[…] Syria is proof we need a global arms-trade treaty | Liberal Conspiracy July 4th, 2012 | Tags: Assad, been-burnt, its-own, Ruthless, year-the-ruthless | Category: […]
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UPDATE: Syria is proof we need a global arms-trade treaty | Liberal Conspiracy « Regional Wars!
[…] posted here: Syria is proof we need a global arms-trade treaty | Liberal Conspiracy July 4th, 2012 | Tags: Assad, been-burnt, its-own, Ruthless, year-the-ruthless | Category: […]
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Jack Barker
Syria is proof we need a global arms-trade treaty http://t.co/fP87mvRX
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AlanW_PoliticsUK
Congratulations to Jack Barker for having his blog post published in Liberal Conspiracy, the UK's most popular… http://t.co/LWwCN0Z2
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adam hindmarch
Syria is proof we need a global arms-trade treaty http://t.co/fP87mvRX
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PoliticsUK-NewGen
https://liberalconspiracy.org/2012/07/04/syria-is-proof-we-need-a-global-arms-trade-treaty/
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PoliticsUK-NewGen
https://liberalconspiracy.org/2012/07/04/syria-is-proof-we-need-a-global-arms-trade-treaty/
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Jack Barker
Congratulations to Jack Barker for having his blog post published in Liberal Conspiracy, the UK's most popular… http://t.co/LWwCN0Z2
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Jack Barker
Congratulations to Jack Barker for having his blog post published in Liberal Conspiracy, the UK's most popular… http://t.co/LWwCN0Z2
-
Jack Barker
Syria is proof we need a global arms-trade treaty http://t.co/fP87mvRX
-
Jack Barker
Syria is proof we need a global arms-trade treaty http://t.co/fP87mvRX
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