NAIROBI - A relief organization says disease, malnutrition and war have killed more than three million people in the Democratic Republic of Congo over the past 4½ years.
the U.S. continues selling weapons to a number of the countries involved in the war. By the time the civil war became an international crisis, the U.S. had little credibility left to play the peacemaker and finally gave up. Frustrated by its lack of leverage in the region, the administration concluded last December that the combatants would not accept a "made in America" peace plan. In the words of one official, the U.S. "would have been laughed out of Dodge by African leaders who remember when their countries were client states."
Yet, real action is not on the agenda. Military training programs continue to promulgate, weapons sales to the developing world are on the rise, and small arms manufacturers are looking to increase exports worldwide. Although U.S. arms manufacturers often boast of making the world a safer place and the Pentagon rallies around human rights training for foreign militaries, history teaches a different lesson. Unless the U.S. recognizes and begins to remedy the mistakes of the past, the uncontrolled transfer of military equipment and training will continue to impede human development and undermine efforts toward a sustainable peace, in Africa and around the world.
Arms control critics will no doubt continue to argue that "Guns don’t kill people; people kill people." (Interesting point considering some of the people the U.S. has armed to the hilt.) The Rwandan genocide of 1994, inflicted largely with machetes, rocks, and other nonmilitary weapons, is often touted as proof that arms control just doesn’t work. Ultimately, however, those arguments ignore the long-term political, economic, and social effects of flooding the developing world with deadly weaponry and military training. While the U.S. has recently begun to call for stronger monitoring and policing mechanisms to limit illicit weapons trafficking, the government continues to focus on the demand side of sales rather than its own contributions as a major weapons supplier.
the U.S. continues selling weapons to a number of the countries involved in the war. By the time the civil war became an international crisis, the U.S. had little credibility left to play the peacemaker and finally gave up. Frustrated by its lack of leverage in the region, the administration concluded last December that the combatants would not accept a "made in America" peace plan. In the words of one official, the U.S. "would have been laughed out of Dodge by African leaders who remember when their countries were client states."
Yet, real action is not on the agenda. Military training programs continue to promulgate, weapons sales to the developing world are on the rise, and small arms manufacturers are looking to increase exports worldwide. Although U.S. arms manufacturers often boast of making the world a safer place and the Pentagon rallies around human rights training for foreign militaries, history teaches a different lesson. Unless the U.S. recognizes and begins to remedy the mistakes of the past, the uncontrolled transfer of military equipment and training will continue to impede human development and undermine efforts toward a sustainable peace, in Africa and around the world.
Arms control critics will no doubt continue to argue that "Guns don’t kill people; people kill people." (Interesting point considering some of the people the U.S. has armed to the hilt.) The Rwandan genocide of 1994, inflicted largely with machetes, rocks, and other nonmilitary weapons, is often touted as proof that arms control just doesn’t work. Ultimately, however, those arguments ignore the long-term political, economic, and social effects of flooding the developing world with deadly weaponry and military training. While the U.S. has recently begun to call for stronger monitoring and policing mechanisms to limit illicit weapons trafficking, the government continues to focus on the demand side of sales rather than its own contributions as a major weapons supplier.
