This year, CAAT’s Stop the Arms Trade Week
focuses on the trade in small arms.
Stop Week
will highlight the effect of arms trading upon children. In addition, with the UN Conference on Small Arms imminent (July 9th-20th), Stop Week
is an opportunity to highlight wider concerns of the effects of the arms trade to the British government.
The impact that small arms and light weapons have on children is terrible and pervasive. As Carol Bellamy, Executive Director of UNICEF says: Small arms have probably extinguished more young lives than they have ever protected.
Small arms present another difficulty in that their relative lightweight allows children to carry and use them. As a result, many children around the world have been pressed into military service against their will and forced to bear small arms in various conflicts.
Despite this, the UK government continues to license the export of small arms. In 1999 alone, the last year for which figures are available, the UK government issued almost 1,000 export licenses for consignments of small arms. It is not publicly known how many weapons were in each consignment. The UK government has also licensed the export of small arms production equipment to a number of countries who themselves export small arms with little or no compunction (see table).
| Country | Equipment exported |
|---|---|
| Israel | Production equipment for small arms ammunition, (AR99) |
| Malaysia | Production equipment for light gun ammunition, (AR99) |
| Malaysia | Equipment for test/production of light gun (AR98) |
| Pakistan | Production equipment for assault rifles, (AR99) |
| Pakistan | Production equipment for general purpose machine guns (AR99) |
| Singapore | Production equipment for machine guns (AR99) |
| USA | Production equipment for small arms ammunition (AR99) |
| USA | Ammunition production equipment (AR97) |
| Ecuador | Firearm production equipment (AR97) |
| Germany | Ammunition production equipment (AR97) |
| Netherlands | Production equipment for small arms (AR97) |
*Source Export Controls Annual Report 1997-1999.
CAAT is will be hosting various events around the UK throughout Stop Week
. Locations are: Abingdon, Buxton, Edinburgh, London, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Tavistock and Wallasey.
ENDS
If you require further information regarding Stop Week
, or wish to attend a local event, please contact Chris Cole or Richard Bingley on 020 7281 0297.
