By IRNA,
London : The EU was urged Friday to tighten its Code of Conduct on Arms Sales to minimize the risk of involvement in the supply of weapons, which contribute to human rights violations in such countries as Israel.
A report by humanitarian groups, led by Saferworld, accused member states of being “remarkably sanguine about supplying Israel with military equipment” after 10 years of implementing code.
During 2002-2006 alone, EU states were found to have licensed the transfer of almost Euro 900 million worth of military items to Israel.
“The only category of military equipment not licensed for sale to Israel was ML19 (directed energy weapon systems and related equipment),” the report said.
It listed arms manufacturers in Britain, Ireland and the Netherlands as examples of how EU guidelines are avoided by supplying components to incorporate into US F16 warplanes and Apache attack helicopters that are exported to Israel.
Poland and Slovakia were also found to have supplied 2,177 pistols and revolvers and Euro 1.3 million worth of parts and accessories respectively to Israel.
The military equipment was being supplied was “despite ongoing concerns about Israeli tactics in the Occupied Territories and the more general Arab-Israeli tensions,” the report said.
They represent “serious breaches of international humanitarian law, or which undermine peace and security or sustainable development,” it also said.
Britain itself has been frequently accused of breaching its own guidelines not to supply military equipment that may be used for internal repression or external aggression.
Saferworld said that EU states were tending to supply components rather than complete systems that allow arms manufacturers to increasingly avoid the code of conduct, which was implemented 10 years ago.
The code on arms exports “has not kept up with significant trends in the arms trade, notably the way components for a single weapons system are now supplied by different companies in a number of countries,” it said.
The report recommended a number of changes to both the code and to the EU’s international transfer control regime as a whole to prevent weapons getting into the wrong hands.
The trends at present are an “increased danger of arms proliferation but EU members have proven less capable, or willing, to deal with them while making it easier for companies to exploit loopholes,” it said, “The code is in need of an overhaul,” says Saferworld’s Roy Isbister. “As it stands, it cannot handle the reality of today’s globalized arms trade, which is far more complex than when the code was introduced.”