On
ATT,
NGOs Say
French Libya
Airdrop
Irresponsible,
Fast &
Furious
Domestic?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
July 10 --
When
non-governmental
organizations
briefed the
press on
Tuesday about
the Arms Trade
Treaty talks,
they were
asked the name
the "bad"
players and
quickly did,
listing
"Egypt, Syria,
Iran, Algeria,
Democratic
People's
Republic of
Korea,
Venezuela and
Cuba."
In
their
presentation
it was unclear
how much of
the bad was
substantive
and how much
procedural, a
code word for
supporting
Palestine's
bid to full
participate
under the "all
states"
formula.
Inner
City
Press asked
the NGOs to
opine to acts
by two of the
presumptive
good (or less
bad) guys:
France and the
United States.
What about
France
airdropping
weapons into
Libya's Nafusa
Mountains? And
what about the
Obama
administration's
"Fast and
Furious"
weapons flow
into Mexico?
Oxfam's
Anna Macdonald
said that
"governments
need to take
responsibility
as to the end
users... are
they likely to
be used to
undermine
sustainable
development?
If the answer
is yes, the
transfer
should not go
ahead, that's
the Golden
Rule that
Frank
[Johannson]
has been
talking
about."
Frank
Johannson,
who heads
Amnesty
International's
branch in
Finland,
said on France
and Libya, in
the EU there
exists the
Common
Position on
Arm Transfers,
"that doesn't
mean that the
states
actually
follow those
rules.
Dropping arms
to Libya is a
situation of
irresponsible
transfer where
the rules were
not followed."
The
moderator
said that Fast
and Furious is
"not going to
enter into the
debate here,"
that while it
showed harm of
transfers,
it's just a
"domestic
issue in the
United
States." Well,
not really:
ask Mexico.
And watch this
site.
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