Sir, - As hundreds of East Timorese lie dead or wounded and over a hundred thousand flee, stories of European weapons such as British-made Hawk jets being used in the area highlight the urgent need for more effective control over arms exports.
It is in this context that the organisations named below are calling on the Irish Government to take a leading role in ensuring that the current review of the EU Code of Conduct on Arms Exports is comprehensive and transparent and that those loopholes which undermine the effectiveness of the code are closed.
The EU Code of Conduct was adopted by the 15 member states in June 1998 with the aim of setting high common standards over arms exports from the region. The first annual review of this code commenced on September 21st this year.
There are several glaring weaknesses in the code that need to be addressed. To remedy these the member states need to do the following:
Establish a common system of end-use monitoring of arms after export. The absence of a common system has allowed British Hawk jets to be used in East Timor despite assurances from the Indonesian government that this would not happen.
Regulate licensed production arrangements so that companies will no longer be able to transfer technology for the manufacture of weapons such as assault rifles to countries where human rights abuses are occurring. Assault rifles have been used by pro-Indonesian paramilitary groups, the TNI and the Indonesian police to carry out mass human rights violations in East Timor.
Control the gun-runners - i.e. the EU arms brokers and shipping agents who arrange arms transfers into conflict and human rights crisis zones without such arms touching EU soil. In the past such brokers have organised the supply of electroshock batons to torturing states and have arranged the provision of arms to Rwandese forces committing genocide.
The current review of the EU Code of Conduct presents a real opportunity for the EU member states to strengthen the weaker elements of the code and prevent the circumvention of national and EU controls by unscrupulous arms manufacturers and traders. We call on the Irish Government to play its part in ensuring that this opportunity is not lost. - Yours, etc.,
Siobhan Connolly, Irish Section, Amnesty International, Joe Murray, AfrI,Caoimhe De Barra, Trocaire, Michael O'Brien, Oxfam Ireland, Fleet Street,Dublin 2.