Full Coverage: Arms & military

30.06.2005 WASHINGTON, D.C., Jun 30 (OneWorld) - Africans and Americans support United Nations-authorized military intervention to quell serious human rights abuses and violence in Sudan's Darfur and other conflict-wracked regions, said a pair of new polls.

29.06.2005 Since Sunday 19 the Zapatista National Liberation Army (EZLN) has been on general red alert with EZLN troops called into the mountains of Chiapas, and Zapatista communities advised to flee by their Juntas de Buen Gobierno (Governing Councils), amid fears that war in Chiapas is likely to resume. The Zapatista "Caracoles" or "centers of zapatista autonomy" have also been closed [Pics of the Caracoles La Garrucha and Morelia]

29.06.2005 Le porte-parole de l'EZLN a déclaré, par voie de communiqué, l' « alerte rouge générale » , entrée en vigueur le 19 juin, dans les territorios rebeldes chiapanèques.

28.06.2005 The military is desperate for young people to fight in Iraq and they are doing everything they can to pull in young people: promising them a college education, big cash bonuses, and trying to guarantee that new enlistees won't get sent to the Middle East. Recruiters roam the halls of high schools luring students into conversation with free goods, rock climbing walls, war simulation video games, and, worst of all, fancy Hummers. Join CODEPINK and the national counter-recruitment movement in standing up to the military.

27.06.2005 On Friday, special representative Aldo Ajello said the EU may support military action against Rwandan Hutu rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo if they refuse to disarm and return home. Despite a declaration in March, where the rebels agreed to end the war against Rwanda, they have shown no commitment to return freely.

27.06.2005 Selon de nouvelles recherches dont les résultats sont publiés ce mercredi 22 juin 2005, en exportant des armes de manière irresponsable dans certains des pays les plus pauvres et les plus touchés par la guerre, les États du G8 ne tiennent pas leurs engagements de réduire la pauvreté, de ramener la stabilité et de faire respecter les droits humains. Des armes ont ainsi été exportées dans des pays comme la Colombie, le Myanmar (ex-Birmanie), les Philippines, la République du Congo et le Soudan.

27.06.2005 Gross human rights abusers will continue to get their hands on weapons as G8 foreign ministers fail to commit to negiotiate a tough Arms Trade Treaty. G8 countries together export more than 80% of the world’s arms.

27.06.2005 Recent reports show the Bush administration continues to press for the militarization of space, claiming it would protect U.S. interests and ensure U.S. military dominance. Critics, however, dismiss the plan as not cost effective and unlikely to achieve its goals. But the greatest danger, writes economist Richard Kaufman, is that the program may increase global nuclear proliferation.

21.06.2005 The OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, said on Tuesday that the Organization should devote more attention to curbing the spread of small arms and light weapons and securing stockpiles of conventional ammunition.

21.06.2005 The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute has published military spending figures for 2003. Total world expenditure is increasing much faster than the global economy and is approximately ten times the equivalent figure for aid for developing countries.

16.06.2005 Bill Clinton cannot resist a little controversial politics, even in his ambassadorial role as UN envoy for tsunami relief. During his visit to Aceh, the former US president suggested that this may be the time to resume sales of military equipment to Indonesia.

16.06.2005 Amnesty International in a new report - Nepal: Military assistance contributing to grave human rights violations - has said that irresponsible military trade by India, the US and the UK has led to disappearance, torture and abduction of thousands of civilians.

16.06.2005 Around the world, governments are offering child soldiers demobilization and rehabilitation programs, recognizing they are usually coerced into fighting and too young to fully understand their actions. Youth gang members, on the other hand, are routinely dealt with through imprisonment, lethal force, and even summary execution. But are the two situations really that different?

16.06.2005 In a new report, Amnesty International reveals how military arms supplies from the U.S., India, and the UK have facilitated the killing, torture, and abduction of thousands of Nepalese civilians. Amnesty is calling on the world's governments to halt military assistance to Nepal until security forces demonstrate they will uphold human rights.

14.06.2005 Moving into John Bolton's old job at the State Department, Robert G. Joseph advocates the offensive use of nuclear weapons and has promoted preemptive first strikes. Now the top official in charge of arms control, Joseph has a reputation for breaking or undermining arms control treaties, rather than supporting or strengthening international arms control.

10.06.2005 WASHINGTON, D.C., Jun 10 (OneWorld) - Humanitarian advocates welcomed Western moves to airlift additional African peacekeepers to Darfur Thursday but urged the United States and other powers to marshal an international peacekeeping force to halt what the White House has called ongoing genocide in the war-wrecked region of Sudan.

08.06.2005 Gordon England--President Bush's nominee to replace Paul Wolfowitz as deputy defense secretary--has no military experience. Having most recently served as Secretary of the Navy, England is a former executive for a Pentagon contractor and has been criticized as a "chicken hawk" and a "creature of the military-industrial complex."

08.06.2005 Post 9/11, the global war on terrorism and heightened threat perception levels have meant that global defence spending in 2003 touched a record high, even in cash-strapped developing countries. A new report ‘Military spending and development’, published by the British global research reporting agency id21, finds that military spending reached over US$1 trillion (1,000 billion) -- a level last seen during the Cold War.

07.06.2005 As seven American soldiers have been arrested in recent months for arms smuggling and drug trafficking, and with the failures of the U.S.-backed Plan Colombia in the background, there is increasing pressure in the country to revise a 1974 treaty shielding U.S. troops from prosecution in Colombia.

01.06.2005 Fewer Latinos are enlisting in the armed forces, according to a report released by the Bush Administration. Although the U.S. government promises enlistment could speed up the citizenship process and provide college scholarships, Latinos--especially non-citizens--are increasingly viewing Iraq as someone else’s fight, writes Diego Cevallos.