Online report links data on "Canada's Military Exports" to human/labour
abuses
Online report links data on "Canada's Military Exports" to human/labour
abuses
This year, the annual report of the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade
(COAT) is entitled:
"Canada's Military Exports: Fuelling wars and
abusing
international
human/labour rights."
It is now available online at the COAT web site:
<http://www.ncf.ca/coat/>
This detailed report provides data on Canada's
military
exports (between
1990 and 1999) and documents some of the ways in
which the
federal
government is actively encouraging domestic
corporations to
export a wide
range of military equipment to many of the
world's most
violent and abusive
regimes.
The report juxtaposes this data on Canada's
military exports
with summaries
of armed conflicts, human rights violations and
abuses of
labour rights by
the same governments that are purchasing
Canadian military
components and
weapons systems. (Statistics published in the
latest annual
report of the
Department of Foreign Affairs and International
Trade
(DFAIT) are compared
with information from the annual reports of
Amnesty
International, the
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
and many
other sources.)
Also included is information on how the Canadian
government
is encouraging
Canadian businesses to take advantage of
lucrative
investment opportunities
in various "export processing zones" (EPZs) in
the same
Third World
countries where Canada is exporting military and
police
equipment. Unions,
collective bargaining and strikes are completely
outlawed in
such EPZs.
Canadian firms can therefore import extremely
inexpensive
products from
exploitative sweatshops in EPZs because strikes
and
non-violent protests
are suppressed by police and military forces
that are, in
part, armed by
Canadian corporations.
The link between Canada's profitable, subsidized
military
industries and
their exports to dozens of repressive regimes
which abuse
labour and other
human rights has long been a major focus of the
work of the
Coalition to
Oppose the Arms Trade.
Here is the list of articles and tables which
are now
accessible online at
the COAT website.
Table of Contents: Press for Conversion! (Issue
44) April
2001
Canada�s Military
Exports...............................3
Table: Fuelling Wars and Armed Conflicts in the
1990s...3
Supporting NATO�s War Crimes in
Yugoslavia..............4
Table: Canada�s Military Exports to NATO
Countries......5
Key: �Military Equipment Types� Exported by
Canada......6
�Target Markets� for Canadian Military
Exporters........6
Table: Selected Cdn. Corporations & Military
Exports....7
Case Studies:
Bangladesh..............................................8
Brazil.................................................10
Chile..................................................12
Egypt..................................................14
Indonesia..............................................16
Israel.................................................18
Korea
(South)..........................................20
Malaysia...............................................22
Morocco................................................24
Philippines............................................26
Saudi
Arabia...........................................28
Singapore..............................................30
Taiwan.................................................32
Thailand...............................................34
Turkey.................................................36
UAE....................................................38
Venezuela..............................................39
----
Previous issues of Press for Conversion! are
also available
online. They
cover such topics as:
* A People's History of the CIA: The Subversion
of Democracy
from Australia
to Zaire
* Nonviolent Resistance to War and Injustice
* Building a Culture of Peace
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
----- -----
----- -----
Richard Sanders
Coordinator, Coalition to Oppose the
Arms Trade
(COAT)
A national, peace network
supported by
individuals and organizations across
Canada
541 McLeod St., Ottawa Ontario K1R
5R2 Canada
Tel.: 613-231-3076 Fax:
613-231-2614
Email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Web site:
<http://www.ncf.ca/coat>
Serbian News Network - SNN
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.antic.org/