Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 1. maj 2008 / Time Line May 1, 2008
Version 3.005/01/2008
Det er nu 61 måneder siden, at USAs præsident Bush erklærede krigen
i Irak for vundet.
05/??/2008
Liberian refugee Amos D. Wright discusses using nonviolent
communication for peace-building in Africa at the 2008 African
Alliance for Peace Summit, May 2008 in Accra, Ghana.
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http://www.archive.org/details/D.CarterNonviolentCommunicationinAfricawithLiberianrefugeeAmosD.Wright
05/01/2008
U.S. DEFENSE DEPARTMENT’S GLOBAL “TRAIN AND
EQUIP” AUTHORITY LACKS CRITICAL SAFEGUARDS
Amnesty International is concerned that future U.S. arms transfers
and military training under the U.S. Department of Defense’s
(DoD) new, global train and equip authority may gravely hurt U.S.
interests, including by fuelling serious human rights violations
and deadly conflict unless critical safeguards are added. Since
2006, this DoD authority has been used to furnish arms and military
training to over 40 foreign militaries, several of which have gross
human rights records and/or involved in armed conflicts such as Sri
Lanka and Chad. The authority also appears to exempt DoD from
several critical protections included in U.S. laws and regulations
that other, traditional U.S. authorities to provide arms and
military training must comply with. In addition, DoD is seeking to
greatly expand this authority by significantly increasing the
authority’s budget and ability to funnel weapons, including
to non-governmental forces. Established by Section 1206 of the
National Defense Authorization Act in 2006, DoD has used this
authority to help create infantry rapid reaction forces and improve
force capability for foreign militaries with gross human rights
violations, raising the risk that U.S. weapons and training could
be used to fuel human rights violations and conflict. For instance,
in 2007 the Chadian security forces received $6 million under the
1206 authority to create a light infantry rapid reaction force. At
the same time, Chadian security forces were engaged in
extrajudicial killings, politically motivated disappearances, rape,
the use of child soldiers, and battles with a rebel armed group. In
late 2006 and 2007, DoD also used this authority to provide the Sri
Lankan military with nearly $14 million in assistance. During this
period, the Sri Lanka government was accused of supporting a
non-governmental force known as the Karuna group that regularly
attacked civilians, and the U.S. Congress was developing language
to restrict U.S. security assistance to Sri Lanka.
Since the 1960s, the U.S. Congress has created laws to help ensure
U.S. security assistance does not damage U.S. interests. For
example, the Foreign Assistance Act calls on the U.S. government to
take into consideration whether a particular U.S. arms transfer
will increase the possibility of an outbreak or escalation of a
conflict. Language included in the annual foreign operations
appropriations bill also requires the U.S. government to vet
potential recipients of U.S. arms for past, credible gross human
rights violations. However, it appears the U.S. government does not
have to take these safeguards into consideration when using the
1206 authority. It is also unclear whether long-standing
protections are in place to ensure that the U.S. government
doesn’t use known arms traffickers to transport weapons under
the 1206 authority. This is a concern because shortcomings in a
similar DoD authority appears to have failed to prevent the U.S.
government from funding known arms traffickers to ship weapons from
Bosnia to Iraq; some of these weapons remain unaccounted for.
Instead of adding protections to these new authorities, the U.S.
President and DoD have requested the U.S. Congress to greatly
expand this authority for FY09 by increasing the funding from $300
million to $750 million annually, making the authority permanent,
and extending the purpose to beyond just for counterterrorism
reasons. The DoD proposal also calls for widening the authority to
include police, gendarmerie, and non-governmental forces such as
civil defense forces.
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