Arms sold by G-8 countries to developing nations rife with military struggles will end up being used against them, says Amnesty International's international secretariat.
"After the events of Sept. 11, this is even more true now," Brian Wood said Monday. "We are living in a world where arms exports can boomerang back and threaten the citizens of the G-8 themselves."
Wood, who is based in London, joined a panel of anti-arms advocates speaking at the G-6B, the counter or so-called people's summit to the G-8.
He called on G-8 leaders to stop arms sales to countries where weapons end up being used to violate human rights and in crimes against humanity and to live up the reduction of small arms program signed at the United Nations in July 2001.
"Human security doesn't start and end in Africa. Human security in Africa starts and ends in London, Washington, Paris, Ottawa and all the other G-8 cities," said Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International in Canada.
Of the 500 million small arms in circulation, 100 million are in Africa, a continent scattered with war and internal conflict.
The proliferation of weapons across the continent, including assault rifles, AK-47 machine guns and other small arms, is "deferring and derailing development" and causing the migration of millions of internally displaced refugees, said Ernie Regehr, a co-founder of Project Ploughshares, a Canadian Council of Churches project.
"The G-8 is a major part of the problem," said Regehr.
He criticized G-8 countries for being the main exporters of military hardware and small arms to many African countries, where the way of the gun is the way of life as people struggle to find security amidst a culture awash in weapons.
In many African countries, up to 50 per cent of national budgets are spent on military expenditures and add to the misery, said Amboka Wameyo, an Africa policy officer in London for
ActionAid, a non-governmental organization.
The proliferation of guns fuels the raping of women by soldiers, the kidnapping of children to create pint-sized soldiers, drug trafficking, car jacking and human trafficking, she said.
"It is unacceptable for the world to turn a blind eye to the Africans crying for mercy."
Wameyo cited as an example the estimated 10,000 children in Uganda who have been abducted and sold as soldiers or slaves and robbed of a childhood.
The G-6B wraps up this evening at the University of Calgary, a culmination of five days of workshops, panel discussions on the plight of developing countries and the effects of G-8 policies on those countries.
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