Recyling War
Pambazuka has two articles on the role of small arms in wars and conflict in Africa and the work of activists who risk their lives to bring about change.
The role of Small Arms in African Civil Wars by Baffour Dokyi Amoa
In Africa the issue of small arms is important. It is a matter of life and death. It is not an exaggeration to say that small arms have contributed to the political disintegration of many African countries. The effects of the proliferation of small arms are felt by many Africans. In many African countries, there are no people to till arable lands, and generations waste their lives by engaging in pointless wars. Children are denied their childhood and are forced to become adults before puberty.
Inspite of this the largest exhibition of weapons in Africa is taking place this weekend in South Africa.
In Merchants of Death Mandisi Majavu asks why this is happening. Many of these companies are “responsible for the deaths of millions of civilians across Africa and the Middle East”; are involved “allegedly involved in dealing weapons through third party front companies with extremely poor human rights records, like America, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt, Angola, Eritrea, Sudan and Nigeria.“.
The reality is war is big business and Africa is a prime market – sell the weapons, destroy and then rebuild, then sell some more and so on – recycling war.
Tags: Arms Sales Africa
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Spot on. Small arms are indeed the real weapons of mass destruction. Nukes just sit in their silos.
It’s a huge problem dealing with Multi-national companies, you get them cornered one place they just switch to another dummy corp, in another country and the game goes on.. Religion, ethnicity, politics is all irrelevent to this issue as these things are tools to be used to generate more arms sales.