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photo: L. Ménendez rscj  | If one considers that, in 2004, fifteen European countries furnished 1/3 weapons to the world and that many of the customers were from the South, where the weight of debt crushes the poor. … If one adds to that the 600 millions light weapons, disseminated throughout the world that kill 500,000 persons per year as well as the thousands of women and children who become handicapped for life when they go to cultivate their fields after a battle…
one understands why AEFJN targets this problem as a priority.
Actions taken
- In 1998 the 15 countries of the EU signed a Code of Conduct regarding the exportation of weapons. However, this code contained 4 weaknesses: it is not constraining, it is vague, it is not sufficiently transparent and is not consistently implemented by all governments in controversial issues.
- In 2004 an EU parliamentary committee evaluated the Code of Conduct. The recommendation of this 5th report presented to the Counsel of the Ministers was adopted by 57votes out of a possible 63. It is now necessary to continue to put pressure on the decision-makers.
- It is necessary to push for an International Treaty that allows for the strict checking on the arms trade beyond the EU.
Additional problems
The reformulated polices focus on the sale of high performance weapons. What of the sale of second hand weapons? Child soldiers: It is calculated that there are 300,000 child soldiers of whom 120.000 African. Enlisted by force or attracted by a little money, or sometimes by the promise of a loaf of bread.
One African professor thinks that these children are beyond recovery: “Do you think there is any hope for a child who may have killed tens of people, who has raped, pillaged, and burned villages? They became as dangerous and implacable as a leopard that has tasted human flesh.” Others dare to hope that someday they will become true soldiers, honest citizens, but it is not the former bosses, now in power, who will rehabilitate them. Few of these children return to their family. The violation of women In Africa, rape is a weapon of war. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo it is thought that 80% of rapes are committed by the soldiers: Rwandese (9.000 Rwandese Hutus fleeing genocide are refugees in Kivu), Ugandans, along with six Congolese rebel groups who are today the bosses in power at Kinshasa, and who remain linked to the foreigners that covet the mineral wealth in the subsoil of eastern Congo. The 16.000 UN peacekeeping soldiers are not without reproach… These women, often violated on more than once, in the presence of their husband and of their children, are mutilated and rejected by their family. Amnesty International has tried to bring this distressing reality to the attention of the international community.
In February 2005, the Congolese Minister of the Human Rights visited the Chasse of St. Madeleine Sophie to talk about these women. We promised our prayers. Clotilde Meeûs rscj
Province de Belgique - Nederland
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