|
|
|
On Women
War has displaced 35 million people worldwide. Eighty percent of the world’s refugees and internally displaced persons are women and children. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “gender-based inequity is usually exacerbated during situations of extreme violence such as armed conflict.”
How women suffer:
-
Violence against girls and women, including rape and sexual slavery.
-
Hunger and exploitation in camps for refugees and displaced persons, when men take control of food distribution.
-
Malnutrition, when food aid neglects women’s and children’s special nutritional requirements.
-
Culturally inappropriate and/or inadequate access to health services, including mental and reproductive health services.
Women bear the burden of caring for those who are ill. This does not change when women are in the midst of war, – children, the sick and elderly – and for maintaining families and households. The already existing problems of inadequate water supply and the deteriorating water quality gets worst with the destruction of infrastructure such as sewage treatments plants.
Raw sewage often flows into streets increasing the risk of disease. When bombs destroy homes, hospitals, schools and food markets, people’s basic needs do not disappear.This only increases the sufferings. In Afghanistan 21 years of war has resulted in poverty and neglect of health facilities.
The health statistics of women in Afghanistan are among the worst in the world. In the central African country of Rwanda, in 1994, nearly 1 million people were killed during a three month ethnic conflict, the most rapid genocide in history. An estimated 40 to 45 percent of those killed were women.
Most of the women in Asia and Africa are farmers. They make up for up to 80 percent of food produced in many parts of Africa. This makes them victims of landmines. The statistics reveal that of almost 35 percent of mine victims are women and girls. In Iraq, the prices of essential commodities stood 850 times the 1990 levels. The dietary intake fell by more than half. As a result today 70% of Iraqi women are anaemic.
|
In Afghanistan, one woman dies every half an hour giving birth to a child
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
On Children
-
An estimated 20 million children have been forced to flee their homes because of conflict. They are living as refugees in neighbouring countries or are internally displaced persons within their own national borders.
-
More than 2 million children have died as a direct result of armed conflict over the last decade. At least 6 million children, have been permanently disabled or seriously injured.
-
Millions of children have died as a result of malnutrition and disease caused by warfare.The most common reported causes of death among refugees and internally displaced persons have been diarrhoeal diseases and acute respiratory infections.
-
An estimated 300,000 child soldiers — boys and girls under the age of 18 — are involved in more than 30 conflicts worldwide. Child soldiers are used as combatants, messengers, porters and cooks. Some are forcibly recruited or abducted, others are driven to join by poverty, abuse and discrimination.
-
During armed conflict, girls and women are continually threatened by rape, domestic violence, sexual exploitation and trafficking. In the 1994 genocide in Rwanda nearly every female over the age of 12 who survived the genocide was raped.
-
Small arms and light weapons are now the most readily available and deadly killing instruments in war and post-conflict situations. Deaths linked to small firearms run into the hundreds of thousands every year, with injuries exceeding 1 million.
-
HIV/AIDS has killed nearly 4 million children and orphaned more than 13 million more worldwide. Of the 17 countries with over 100,000 children orphaned by AIDS, 13 are either in conflict or on the brink of emergency and the other13 are heavily indebted poor countries.
-
Of the 10 countries with the highest rates of under-five deaths, seven are affected by armed conflict. Angola and Sierra Leone have the highest under-five mortality rates, nearly one in three children dies before the age of five.
-
The shortfalls and disparities in humanitarian relief for war-affected children are a reflection not of need but of the political and strategic interests of donor countries. In 1998, official development assistance for Bosnia and Herzegovina reached US $238 per person. In comparision poor countries such as Afghanistan received $6 per person.
-
The social and economic costs of conflicts to the countries at war has been far greater.In countries where children are already vulnerable to disease, the onset of armed conflict may increase death rates by 24-fold. For example, in Mozambique between 1981 and 1988, war caused an estimated 454,000 excess childhood deaths, above what would have normally been expected.
More than 90 % of the casualties in armed conflicts are civilians. About half of them are children
Information sourced from:
www.unicef.org/graca/women.htm
http://www.endthewar.org/frontps/
factsheet.htm
http://warchild.ca/report.asp
|
|
|
|
On Ecology
War affects the environment, big time. It has terrifying impact on the environment and human health. According to a study carried out by the UNEP on the state of environment in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, war leads to the degradation of groundwater, dumping of wastes, loss of natural vegetation and contamination of coastal waters in the region. In fact, each of the various ‘ingredients’ of war has catastrophic environmental consequences.
In a wellresearched article, Dr. Jennifer Leaning of the Division of Emergency Medicine, Harvard Medical School, USA, has discussed and categorised them as nuclear weapons, aerial and naval bombardments, landmines and military toxins and waste. War also wreaks havoc with environment and livelihoods by interfering and altering people’s control over their traditional resources.
A classic case in point is Afghanistan. In this country, where 85% of the population is engaged in rural economy mainly agriculture, with 15% of the land suitable for farming, war has affected agriculture, since landmines prevent cultivation. Earlier, the land belonged to the state and local community but after the war these have gone into the hands of the warlords. War has also made drought more severe.
 15 %of land suitable for farming in Afghanistan cannot be used because of landmines on them
Additionally, grazing lands account for 75.6% of the mined areas. Would any sane person venture into these areas? According to the UNEP study, water resources in Afghanistan are also threatened by contamination from waste dumps, chemicals and open sewers.
Illegal harvesting is depleting forests and woodland resources and overgrazing is preventing regeneration. Coniferous forest cover in the provinces of Nangarhar, Kunar and Nuristan has reduced by an average of 50 per cent since 1978. In the urban environment, human health is being placed at risk due to poor waste management practices and lack of proper sanitation. In short, there is not even a semblance of an environment management in place.
The 1991 Gulf was another environment disaster. Oil spills resulted in a significant decline in Saudi Gulf shrimp stock, while the 300 unburned pools of oil left in the desert contaminated some 40 million tones of soil. There is more. The 736 burning oil wells gave off aromatic hydrocarbons, which can cause cancer.
|
|
|
|
|
Why, no Nukes!
How nuclear weapons endanger life on earth
 Populations and individuals around the world have been affected by the increase of radioactive materials in the global ecosystem. Cancers, birth defects, genetic damage, lowered immunity to diseases: these are only some of the potential effects of nuclear testing, uranium mining, radioactive waste burial and all the phases of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy production. Accidents at civilian nuclear power facilities have leaked cancerous and mutagenic isotopes into the environment for more than 50 years.
Nuclear accidents such as Chernobyl and Three Mile Island have spread radiation across Europe and North America. Due to the long-lived nature of the radioactive contaminants from these two occurrences, the effects continue to be felt. In the contaminated regions around Chernobyl, for example, there has been a sharp increase in thyroid cancer, severe mental retardation due to prenatal exposure, and genetic damage in human, animal and plant life.
It is now clear that: health problems can be linked to radiation exposure; nuclear accidents have prolonged effects on human health and ecological integrity; and health and safety regulations within nuclear facilities across the globe are not being applied with the rigor that is an essential requirement for long-lived radioactive materials.
The production of nuclear weapons has created not only the threat of nuclear destruction on an immediate level through nuclear war, but also on a continual and protracted level through the creation of nuclear waste. The burial of radioactive materials is presently being touted as the ‘solution’ to radioactive waste ‘disposal’.
WIPP in New Mexico, Yucca Mountain in Nevada, Gorleben in Germany, proposed sites in the UK, Russia, Australia and elsewhere are among the places where nuclear engineers claim to have ‘solved’ the nuclear waste problem. However, at present, there are no known disposal routes for long-lived radioactive materials. The burial of these materials must not be confused with their safe containment and isolation from the environment.
Secrecy has been the defining culture of the nuclear age. Restricted access to information has powerful public and ecological impacts. Because of governmental and corporate secrecy, as well as a management culture which discourages proper documentation, information about the health and environmental effects of nuclear weapons and nuclear power production is not easily obtainable.
Source: www.reachingcriticalwill.org
|
B  M B
B u s i n e s s
World Military Spending
-
World military expenditures rose 2% in 1999 to $852 billion, a modest 4% above the post-Cold War low in 1996, but 35% below the level of a decade earlier.
-
North America accounted for the largest regional portion, or 34%, of 1999 world military spending with the US alone accounting for 33%. Western Europe with 22% had the second largest share.
-
Western Europe was the largest arms importing region in 1999, with $15.1 billion or 29% of the world's total.
-
South Asia had the highest average annual growth rate of any region in the decade, with 5%. Its share of world military spending more than doubled (from 0.8% to 2.0%), reflecting the military build-up between India and
Pakistan.
-
North America led the regions in 1999 with 65% of the world, while Western Europe had 23% and Eastern Europe, 8.5%. The US, with 69% of the total export agreements signed from 1997-1999, is likely to dominate the world arms market in the near future.
-
The top five importing countries in 1999 — Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Japan, China-Taiwan, and United Kingdom — accounted for 37% of world arms imports.
-
The six largest forces (in thousands) were China – 2,400, United States – 1,490, India – 1,300, North Korea – 1,000, Russia – 900, and Turkey – 789.
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, Office of the, Spokesman, February 6, 2003, FACT SHEET:
Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers 1999-2000
|
|
|
|
|
 Arms are for Hugging
The arms trade fuels wars, destroys lives and increases poverty.
The conjunction of an immense military establishment and a huge arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence—economic, political, and even spiritual—is felt in every city, every state house, and every office of the federal government ... In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address to the Nation (USA), January 17, 1961
The global military expenditure and arms trade is the largest business in the world at approximately $ 800 billion, annually in expenditure.
 Just 1% of global annual military spending could educate every child on earth over the next decade
The Arms Trade is a major cause of human rights abuses, with some governments spending more on the sale of arms than on social development, communications infrastructure and health combined. Half the world's governments spend more on the
military than on health care. The West sells a lot of these arms to military dictatorships, to many human rights violators or corrupt governments, often secretly and with training.
These sales and training provisions therefore become tools to control and prevent any form of democracy as Noam Chomsky points out. Throughout the Cold War era, from 1950 to 1989, the United States delivered over $1.5 billion worth of weaponry to Africa. Many of the top US arms clients — Liberia, Somalia, the Sudan, and Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo or DRC) — have turned out to be the top basket cases of the 1990s in terms of violence, instability, and economic collapse.
In the year 2000, the US controlled half of the developing world's arms market with $12.6 billion in sales, according to an annual report published by the Congressional Research Service. Despite the disintegration of its Cold War rival, the US continues to spend far more on its military than is spent by all of the replacement candidates (China, Russia, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Libya and Sudan) put together.
According to New Internationalist magazine, it was after the Gulf War that arms manufacturers saw a golden opportunity to diversify and make money out of clearing up the mess that their products had caused in the first place. The growing movement for a ban on landmines has spurred more arms companies to take up this practice, known as 'double dipping'.
The US Administration is requesting a military budget of $396 billion in fiscal 2003, a one year increase of $45. This will be the largest increase in military budget authority since fiscal 1966 at the height of the Vietnam War. The increase alone is larger that the military budget of all other countries beside Japan, whose budget is $45.6 billion. Oh, to be secure.
|
The American tax payer pays about $7 Billion per year to subsidise arms sales
|
|
|
|
|
Small Arms
Small, portable, rugged, inexpensive, and deadly – small arms have wrought extreme destruction to health and development around the world
The problem: In Sudan, an AK47, 'a small arm' can be purchased for the same price as a chicken. "Small arms and light weapons" include a range of weaponry from revolvers to portable launchers of anti-aircraft missile systems. There are more than 500 million small weapons around the world, one for about every 12 people. In the last decade, 49 conflicts have been waged around the world. 6 million people have been killed, 90% of them civilians.
The suppliers: The largest suppliers are the 5 countries who are incidently also the permanent members of Security Council. The primary supplier of these weapons is the United States, which exports 4,000,000 small arms a year to 155 countries.
The Effects: The widespread availability of small arms is one of the primary reasons for the disturbing phenomenon of child soldiers. More than 120,000 children under 18 are currently participating in conflicts in Africa. Child soldiers killing child soldiers.
The increased availability of small arms and light weapons through both legal and illegal channels has contributed to an alarming rise in civilian casualties during the 1990s. Since 1990, in conflicts where small arms have been used, 2 million children have been killed, 5 million have been disabled and 12 million left homeless.
Landmines
Simply put, landmines are designed to blow up the people who step on them. Unfortunately, they can’t discriminate between soldiers and civilians.
The problem: Over 400 million landmines have been laid since the beginning of World War II. Today, it is estimated that nearly a quarter of these mines are still alive, laying in wait for victims. It is also estimated that landmines claim 24,000 victims a year. At this rate, innocent victims will still be stepping on landmines 4,000 years from now. Over 80% of their victims are civilians. Thousands are children. Landmines are still killing and maiming people in at least 70 of the world's poorest countries.
The Effects: Landmines are a developmental disaster - they deny people the use of land and infrastructure and treatment of survivors drains the poorest countries of scarce resources. After a successful international campaign, in March 1997, the treaty to ban antipersonnel landmines came into force as international law.
India has not acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty. India decided to abstain from voting on the November 2001 UN General Assembly Resolution calling for universalisation of the Mine Ban Treaty.
To know more go to:
www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/ArmsTrade.asp
www.zmag.org/GlobalWatch/ArmsTrade.html
www.newint.org/issue261/contents.htm
www.oxfam.org.uk/campaign/cutconflict/index.html
www.newint.org/issue294/contents.html, www.icbl.org
|
