The United States armed some of the world’s most notorious human rights abusers in 1999 with thousands of small arms and logistical supplies that facilitated their abusive practices, according to a new report issued this month. “Human Rights and Weapons: Records of Selected US Arms Clients,” a report by the Washington-based Council for a Livable World Education Fund details numerous weapons sold by the US to 16 abusive governments around the world.
Using government documents detailing US arms exports and the human rights records of countries around the globe, the study describes the type, number, and dollar value of some of the weapons sold to these countries by the US, and the abusive practices in which the security forces of those nations engaged.
For example, the State Department reported that the Haitian police perpetrated 66 extra judicial killings in 1999. Meanwhile, the Pentagon sold over $30,000 in riot control ammunition to Haiti the same year. Further, the State Department licensed US companies to sell over $190,000 worth of ammunition and riot control equipment to Haiti that year. Similar details were provided for arms sales to fifteen other countries.
The report also noted that the US licensed $22.7 billion of manufacturing and technological know-how for export in 1999. Selling foreign countries the capability to build US weapons increases the chances, according to the report, “that those weapons will make it into the hands of human rights abusers and countries that sponsor or harbor terrorists.”
The report shows that the US government only loosely follows section 502b of the Foreign Assistance Act, which states “security assistance may not be provided to any country... which engages in a consistent pattern of gross violation of...human rights.” In 1999, the most recent year for which data are available, the US sold $12.1 billion worth of weapons and approved licenses for potential sales worth another $46.9 billion. The same year the US also sold, or licensed for sale, military equipment to 151 nations and trained the militaries of 125.
Members of the United States Senate share concern over America’s export of items to countries that abuse human rights.
“The United States allows the export a variety of devices that can be used to torture prisoners,” says Senator Jon Kyl (R-Arizona). “These devices that can be used to torture prisoners . . . are controlled for export due to human rights considerations. You can get these on the open market.”
“Should the United States be selling them to countries that we know engage in human rights abuses?” Kyl asks. “That is the kind of consideration that distinguishes America from many of the rest of the nations in the world. We just do not sell equipment and items to other countries that we know will be used to hurt people improperly, even though that equipment can be obtained from other places. Even if people can buy something from someplace else, it is not necessarily a good idea for the United States to be selling it, again, partially because of the signals the we send.”
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