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NATO Should Promote Responsible Arms Sales Open Letter to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Foreign Ministers |
(New York, May 19, 2000)
As you prepare to gather in Florence, Italy, for meetings of the North Atlantic Council (NAC) and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council (EAPC), we urge you to raise arms trade issues in discussions with prospective new members of the alliance and other NATO partners. Human Rights Watch is very concerned by the proliferation of small arms and the sale of surplus weapons, including heavy weapons such as tanks and helicopters, to areas where they risk fueling violent conflicts, contributing to humanitarian crises, and endangering human rights. Our field investigations in areas of armed conflict in Africa and elsewhere have demonstrated that many of the weapons being used to commit human rights abuses originate from the arsenals and arms factories of countries that participate in NATO's Partnership for Peace (PfP) program. We have been pleased to see a growing commitment by NATO and PfP countries, acting through the EAPC and in other fora, to address the problems posed by the uncontrolled proliferation of small arms and light weapons. In particular, efforts by the ad hoc EAPC working group on small arms have led to important action on several fronts, including the development of programs offered within the PfP framework to assist partner countries with stockpile security and destruction of surplus weapons (as outlined in a new Partnership Work Program chapter on small arms), as well as various meetings held to discuss scope for EAPC action on arms export controls. We understand that these consultations will be reported at the upcoming ministerials and, in light of the EAPC's ongoing work on these issues, we'd like to highlight three areas in which we hope there will be further progress.
Stemming the Flow of Surplus Weapons While new PfP programs regarding disposal of surplus small arms are optional, we feel that PfP countries should be actively encouraged to take advantage of all programs that will help address the proliferation of these weapons. In addition, where appropriate, NATO member states should arrange exchanges, by which the transfer of newer military equipment to PfP or new NATO states would be contingent on the recipient country's responsible disposal of quantities of surplus weapons. Such arrangements could do much to prevent weapons from ending up in the hands of abusive military forces.
Harmonization of Arms Trade Controls
Scrutiny of Aspirant Countries
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