NORWAY: Talking Peace, Exporting Weapons
Peace builder Norway is the world's seventh largest exporter of weapons and ammunition, according to recent figures.
There are estimated to be about 639 million small arms and light weapons in the world today, according to the Control Arms campaign coordinated by Amnesty International, Oxfam and the London-based International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA). These often end up in the wrong hands, contributing both to wars and violent crime, and hindering development.
Norway, a country which prides itself on its peace building credentials, was the world's seventh largest exporter of weapons components, ammunition and tanks in 2006, according to recent figures based on earnings from Norway's Central Statistics Bureau (SSB).
In 2007 Norwegian weapons exporters earned 425 million dollars -- an 18 percent increase on the previous year, and the largest in Norwegian history. This was 3.5 percent of the global weapons trade, although the secretiveness of the global weapons industry and the illegal weapons trade makes exact measurements impossible.
According to the Norwegian foreign department's legal guidelines, weapons should not be exported to countries at war, where there is a threat of war, or where there is a civil war. But a recent report from the NGO Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) lists a series of controversial arms and ammunitions transfers from Norway in the past two decades.
read more,
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42650
There are estimated to be about 639 million small arms and light weapons in the world today, according to the Control Arms campaign coordinated by Amnesty International, Oxfam and the London-based International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA). These often end up in the wrong hands, contributing both to wars and violent crime, and hindering development.
Norway, a country which prides itself on its peace building credentials, was the world's seventh largest exporter of weapons components, ammunition and tanks in 2006, according to recent figures based on earnings from Norway's Central Statistics Bureau (SSB).
In 2007 Norwegian weapons exporters earned 425 million dollars -- an 18 percent increase on the previous year, and the largest in Norwegian history. This was 3.5 percent of the global weapons trade, although the secretiveness of the global weapons industry and the illegal weapons trade makes exact measurements impossible.
According to the Norwegian foreign department's legal guidelines, weapons should not be exported to countries at war, where there is a threat of war, or where there is a civil war. But a recent report from the NGO Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) lists a series of controversial arms and ammunitions transfers from Norway in the past two decades.
read more,
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42650
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