Some facts about the sale of weapons ....
In modern warfare 90% of war casualties are civilians, 80% of who are women and children, a century ago 90% of war casualties were military personnel.
Total global military expenditure and trade in arms is $840 Billion dollars annually, the largest spending in the world. This is some 14 times more than it is estimated is needed to eradicate poverty from the world. Many struggling developing countries like India, South Africa, Turkey and others simply can’t afford to be buying arms.
The largest importing region for arms remains the Middle East, which accounts for three quarters of the world’s arms trade (in particular Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, UAE and Egypt), followed by East Asia with the fastest growth in South Korea, China, Indonesia, Singapore and Japan.
The US arms transfer determinations take into account certain criteria, including, “the human rights, terrorism and proliferation record of the recipient and potential for misuse of the export in question” (Criteria for Decision Making on US Arms Exports).
The US also supplies four-fifths of Turkey’s military imports. Turkey has used these weapons to suppress internal political dissent and carry out military campaigns against the rebellious Kurdish minority. An estimated twenty thousand Kurds have been killed and 2.5 million displaced from their villages by the Turkish army’s operations.
Over two thirds of all arms agreements went to dictatorships that were violating human rights. From 1993 to 1997, the US government sold, approved or gave away $190 billion in weapons to various countries. Among them, many nations with deplorable human rights records, including Turkey, Indonesia, Colombia, Saudi Arabia and Israel. In 1997 alone, Clinton approved $83 billion in military assistance to dictatorships.
And when it comes to making big money, the Clinton administration had no problem selling in areas of regional conflict arming possible foes engaged in regional rivalry. Two American NATO allies for instance, Greece and Turkey are also two of the USA ‘s largest arms buyers. Both countries have come close to war several times over the Turkish occupation of the northern part of the island of Cyprus as well as territorial disputes in the Aegean. Barred by the US Congress from selling “offensive” weapons to Cyprus itself, the US in 1997, for instance, sold more than $270 million worth of weapons to Greece and $750 million to Turkey.
Besides the US, there are other countries that export conventional arms to countries violating human rights. For instance, Britain increased arms sales to Israel (which almost doubled, despite its repressive military actions in the occupied territories), Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nepal and China.
http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/50028
