NATO must act to stem the flow of weapons from former Warsaw Pact countries into areas of violent conflict, Human Rights Watch urged today. In a briefing paper released to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of NATO, the group charged that firesales of old weaponry from former Warsaw Pact countries are exacerbating human rights abuses in many areas of the world, especially Africa.
With new countries joining NATO, the alliance has a unique opportunity to set some basic ground rules for its members," said Loretta Bondì,advocacy coordinator of the Arms Division, an international monitoring group based in New York. "One of the new groundrules of NATO has got to be that all members should use maximum restraint in selling off arms stockpiles." Bondì noted that unfortunately, the lethal trade is likely to increase as former Warsaw Pact countries continue upgrading their arsenals to meet NATO standards.
The briefing paper, "Arsenals on the Cheap: NATO expansion and the Arms Cascade" says that since the early 1990s, Warsaw Pact standard weapons, particularly small arms, were acquired by combatants in Africa and elsewhere sometimes in violation of international or regional arms embargoes. Some examples:
Between 1992 and 1995, Germany disposed of 500 tanks, 1,400 armored combat vehicles, and 400 artillery pieces inherited from the former East Germany. One of the buyers was Turkey, which has been responsible for persistent patterns of gross abuses, including forced displacement and the destruction of villages in the Kurdish region.
In July 1995, Ukrainian arms were supplied to the Rwandan exile forces based in eastern Zaire. This shipment violated the May 1994 United Nations arms embargo.
Russia has been a reliable arms supplier to Burundian forces, which have been under a regional arms embargo since August 1996.
Poland reportedly blocked a shipment of fifty T-55 tanks to Sudan only after U.S. protests. Sudan is targeted by a European Union arms embargo.
Bulgaria calculated that destroying its excess tanks and selling them for scrap could fetch a meager profit of just U.S.$2,000 for each. Selling them, however, would bring U.S.$30,000 per tank. In December 1998, Bulgaria sold 140 surplus tanks to Ethiopia and Uganda, which are both involved in conflicts with their neighbors.
Human Rights Watch wrote NATO Secretary General Javier Solana on April 27, 1998 to ask whether NATO had compiled a full inventory of allies' and perspective members' surplus weapons stocks. The letter also asked about safekeeping, accounting, and control procedures for current and projected weapons stockpiles; steps to encourage harmonization of export controls; and programs to control illicit transfers of light weapons in the context of NATO peacekeeping operations.
