The Arms Trade, Conflict and the Causes of Refugee Movement

The arms business is one of the most reprehensible sectors of international trade. Arms traders have no compunction about making profits out of poverty - selling sophisticated jet fighters or nuclear submarines to countries where millions of people lack even the most basic means of survival. The top five exporting countries, which sell 86% of the conventional weapons exported to developing countries, in descending order: the former Soviet Union, the United States, France, China and the United Kingdom, all permanent members of the Security Council. They sell two-thirds of these arms to ten developing countries - among them some of the poorest countries of the world, such as Afghanistan, India and Pakistan, which account for nearly 30% of developing country imports.

Even more regrettable is that arms dealers continue to ship weapons to potential trouble spots, showing little concern about fanning the flames of conflict. More than 40% of the sales of major conventional weapons during the past decade went to such trouble spots [such as Somalia and Sudan]. Of the major suppliers, Brazil, China, Egypt, France, Italy, Libya, Romania, the former Soviet Union, Spain and the United States have been among the chief offenders.

Refugees and Human Rights: The Global Picture

A decade ago, there were some eight million refugees world-wide. Today, the number of refugees seeking protection from terrible human rights violations has almost doubled: to more than 15 million. Refugees are people who have fled their countries because they have a well-founded fear of persecution and cannot rely on their own governments to protect them. This is what distinguishes refugees from other migrants. Increasingly these people are evidence of the extent to which persecution, mass human rights violations and abuses arising out of civil war and other conflicts have erupted around the world during the 1990's, leaving refugees in their wake.

Most of the world's refugees are women and children. The majority of them have fled for the same reasons as men. Some refugees, however, have been forced to leave their homes because of human rights violations and abuses directed primarily or solely at women. Women from zones of conflict have fled areas where soldiers have systematically raped and sexually abused young girls and women. In Afghanistan, the states of the former Yugoslavia, Zaire and other countries, rape was used to terrorise civilians into flight. Women have also sought asylum abroad because of fear of persecution due to the status or activities of male relatives, or because they have transgressed, or refused to conform to, discriminatory religious, social or customary laws and practices. Some women have fled their countries to seek protection from the practice of female genital mutilation.

Women are not even safe once they have found refuge. In 1991, some 300,000 Somali refugees fled inter-clan fighting, famine and disease in their country. In 1996, some 170,000 Somali refugees were still living in Kenya. Most were housed in three camps in a remote area of the Northeast, near the border with Somalia. Hundreds of Somali women were raped in these camps between April 1992 and November 1993. Although the majority of rapists were bandits, a number of women were raped by Kenyan soldiers or police. As far as Amnesty International is aware, to this day those responsible for raping or assaulting Somali refugees have not been brought to justice.

The growing number of refugees is neither a temporary problem nor the random product of chance events. It is the predictable consequence of human rights crises throughout the world. Often these crises were foreseen. In the two years before the outbreak of genocidal violence in Rwanda, a United Nations (UN) human rights expert warned that unless states took determined action,mass killings would follow. The international community not only failed to heed these warnings, but, when the massacres started in April 1994, withdrew the UN troops. Since then, refugee crisis has followed refugee crisis in the region, with millions of men, women and children suffering dislocation, terror, disease, starvation and death....

The refugee crisis in Europe also shows little sign of improvement. Its worst human rights disaster since the 1940 is far from being resolved. From 1991, as the former Yugoslavia fractured, systematic rape, mass murder and 'disappearance' became commonplace. More than two million people in Bosnia and Herzegovina alone fled their homes, friends and livelihoods. Some found temporary refuge in Europe, others are still displaced within the country...

Thousands of Algerians have tried to seek refuge abroad to escape political violence which has resulted in more than [80,000] killings since 1992. Many of those killed have been members of the security forces and armed opposition groups killed in armed confrontation, but as the violence has spiralled out of control, civilians have increasingly borne the brunt of the carnage. More than 100 foreigners have been killed in Algeria, as a result of which European governments have advised their citizens against visiting the country because the Algerian authorities are unable to protect them. Tens of thousands of Algerians have been killed in the conflict, but these same governments often reject asylum-seekers' claims, arguing that they face no risk of serious human rights violations in their home country. This double-standard has meant that asylum-seekers fleeing violence in Algeria have been unable to obtain the protection they need.

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