weapons

2005

The Arms Trade

A report in the UK newspaper, The Independent, describes the state of the global arms trade.

In 2003, countries of the world spent just under $ 1 million million on arms. Each year, 8 million small arms and 14,000 million rounds of ammunition are manufactured. Of the 639 million small arms that exist, 60% are held by civilians. As a result, one person dies every minute from fire arms.

The world's poorer countries spend around $ 22,000 million per year on arms. This is enough to send every child in these countries to primary school.

The top five countries selling arms are the five countries who are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. These five nations account for 88% of global arms sales. Four of them are democracies.

• The USA sells $ 9,700 million per year.
• The UK ($ 4,000 million).
• Russia ($ 3,600 million).
• France ($ 1,000 million).
• China ($ 500 million).

The UK sells arms to several undemocratic countries. These include Saudi Arabia (the UK's biggest customer, spending $ 380 million in 2003),United Arab Emirates and Oman (both absolute monarchies with no elections), China (a one party dictatorship). Other UK customers includeTurkey (which oppresses its Kurdish minority), Israel (which has occupied Palestinian and Syrian land since 1967) and Indonesia (which oppresses minorities like the Acehnese).