1 August 2003

Quotes on the UN and Armaments

"Every gun, every warship, every tank and every military aircraft built is, in the final analysis, a theft from those who are hungry and are not fed, from those who are naked and are not clothed."
Dwight D Eisenhower, General Commander Allied Forces, World War 2 and US President 1952-1960 (from Peace New's Nonviolent Action Issue 22 June 2001

"Our vision is of ..... a world where peace and human security, as envisioned in the principles of the United Nations Charter, replace armaments, violent conflicts and wars....
The UN and its member states have failed to fulfil their primary responsibility of maintaining peace and preserving human life. "
"Disarmament is not the only way to peace. It must be accompanied by genuine human security. It is imperative that NGOs be included in the dialogue for peace. The world community, civil society, including younger and older people and their governments have the resources and knowledge to move from a culture of violence to a culture of peace."...
"The Forum urges: ... Governments... To initiate a world-wide freeze on armed forces and a 25% cut in production and export of major weapons and small arms, ... as the beginning of world-wide build-down of conventional forces."
We the Peoples Millennium Forum Declaration and Agenda for Action. Strengthening the United Nations for the 21st Century - Declaration over 1,350 representatives of over 1,000 NGO from more than 100 countries. May 2000. (available from UN Information Centre and UNA)

"For three years in a row now, the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva has not engaged in any negotiations because its members have been unable to agree on disarmament priorities. I cannot here review the entire arms control spectrum. I focus here on two categories of weapons that are of special concern: small arms and light weapons, because they currently kill most people in most wars; and nuclear weapons, because of their continuing terrifying potential for mass destruction."...
"Let us resolve therefore:....To ensure that the Organisation (the UN) is given necessary resources to carry out its mandates."
Kofi Annan - Secretary-General of the United Nations - We the Peoples: the role of the United Nations in the twenty-first century.

"43. Demilitarise the Global Economy by reducing Military Budgets and Shifting resources Toward Human Security Programs.
Peace in the 21st century demands a shift from the 20th century's expenditures on the military to civilian programs that safeguard human security. Disarmament will entail making drastic cuts in weapons, forces and military budgets. Demilitarisation will require transforming the military economy to a peace economy by allocating resources for programs that ensure the well being of the world's citizens - that provide for the basic human rights of food, shelter, education, work, health, security and peace. It will require global adherence to the United nations Charter and to the development of non-military security structures and peace-making institutions.
As a first step toward disarmament and demilitarisation, the Hague Appeal for Peace endorses the Women's Peace Petition, which calls for a 5% reduction a year for 5 years in military spending and the reallocation of these substantial resources toward human security programs and peace education.
The Hague Agenda for Peace and Justice for the 21st Century - UN Ref: A/54/98 www.haguepeace.org

"We fear that, unless the principles of this Culture (of Peace) are increasingly built into every activity undertaken by governments and others, the world will risk the continuation of the appalling bloodshed and of the destruction which so dominated great periods of the 20th century with its threat of termination of life throughout the world."
"Members' determination at the United Nations to pursue the unfinished global disarmament agenda remains sadly limited. The threatened development and/or spread of weapons of mass destruction remain ver real."
"Small arms remain available in the Great Lakes Region of Central Africa, in Angola and in many other countries and continue to fuel conflict, exacerbate human rights abuses, undermine development programmes and peace processes and defy the effects of our and other governments and of civil society to curb them. We believe that reductions in Military budgets remain the cornerstones to achieving the international development and environmental targets and greater human rights implementation"
"We remain deeply concerned at the UK's continuing reliance on the defence industry and at the periodic provision of arms to a number of unsavoury regimes, where they may be used against civilians or to abuse human rights or could undermine development, often with the Export Credit Guarantee Department's (ECGD) support."
"We call upon Her Majesty's Government vigorously to seek a Fourth Special Session of the UN General Assembly on Disarmament no later than 2003, which would seek to confirm a creative, holistic and comprehensive UN disarmament agenda and action plan for the first part of the 21st century. We believe that such Special Sessions should be held on a regular basis in order to review progress and to set new targets."
"We urge Her Majesty's Government to campaign at the UN for structuring of effective regional security guarantees to help to reduce individual countries' felt need for arms."
"We believe that space should be kept free of weapons and of nuclear power and that the excessive expense it would involve would be better served by sharing more fairly the world's resources."
"... what must be engendered is far greater political will to bring those aspirations to fruition."
Policy 2001. United Nations Association of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (www.una-uk.org ). Policy Statement adopted at Annual Conference April 2001.

African civil war Prime ministers Question time Wednesday 6 Feb 2002

Prime minister’s Question time Wednesday 6 Feb 2002

Mr. Alex Salmond (Banff and Buchan): Is the Prime Minister aware that on the day of the Twin Towers disaster, there took place in this city an arms trade fair sponsored by the Ministry of Defence? Among the customers at that fair for state-of-the-art weaponry were both sides in the civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Would it not be a useful start to the Prime Minister's mission to Africa if he announced that henceforth this country will not sell arms to both sides in African civil wars?

6 Feb 2002 : Column 862

The Prime Minister (Tony Blair): I do not know about the particular point that the hon. Gentleman makes, but I will investigate it and write to him. Our arms sales to Africa run at about 1 per cent. of total arms sales, so it is important to put that in context. There are also, incidentally, jobs and industry in this country to consider. Of course it is important to take care who we sell arms to, and we do. The desire of African nations is for the partnership for change in Africa—which covers a whole range of issues, including aid and trade, investment and governance—to be satisfactorily put together for the G8 summit in July, so that the developing and developed world can give Africa the chance that it needs.

From: Parliament - UK web site: www.parliament.uk/

"But I also made it clear to [Vladimir Putin] that it's important to think beyond the old days of when we had the concept that if we blew each other up, the world would be safe."
George W. Bush, US President and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces, preaching on the US position on Health and safety (from CAAT news June-July 2000 / Issue 166 - www.caat.org.uk )

This council believes development of ballistic missile defence risks increasing international tensions and diverting huge resources, which could be better diverted to tackle poverty, environmental degradation and human rights abuse which sow the seeds of War"
Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council Resolution (from CND's Campaign - June 2001 www.cnduk.org )

"Emphasizes: in this regard, the need for more effective coordination of disarmament, demobilization and reintegration programmes, and reaffirms that adequate and timely funding of these programmes is critical to the success of peace processes".
UN Security Council resolution 1327 (2000) On implementation of the Report of The Panel on UN Peace Operations 13 Nov 2000 S/RES/1327 (2000).

To the extent that money can solve conflicts and potential conflicts, not a huge amount is required compared to what the world is prepared to spend on everything else, including defence."
Gareth Evans, President of The International Crisis Group (www.intl-crisis-group.org ); Former Foreign Minister of Australia. - Preventing and responding to deadly conflict in UN2000 The United Nations Millennium Summit (available from UN Information Centre and UNA).

"In the Millennium Declaration [September 2000] ... governments from all over the world pledged themselves to free their peoples from the scourge of war, from abject and dehumanising poverty, and from the threat of living on a polluted planet with few natural resources left ...[and] to promote democracy and the rule of law; to protect children and other vulnerable people; and to meet the special needs of Africa. And they promised to make the United Nations itself more effective, as an instrument for pursuing all those aims. ....
The Charter was written in your name .... In the end, only you can ensure the Declaration is more than fine words. It is up to you to see the pledges honoured, and so to make the new century better than the old".
Message to the Peoples of the United Nations from Secretary-General Kofi Annan 24 October (United Nations Day), 2000.

"A recent publication Budgeting for Disarmament has attempted to set out some of the costs of war and peace and sketch out some of the key elements of an agenda for a better world.

The first challenge, the author argues, is to assist countries emerging from the devastation of warfare in their efforts to rebuild and fashion viable civil societies and economies less susceptible to breakdown and strife. The second is to slash the enormous arsenals of weapons accumulated over decades; to adopt meaningful restrictions on arms production, possession, and trade; and to convert war-making capacities to civilian use. Finally, and this is likely to be the greatest challenge, there is a need to create institutions that are capable of robust peacekeeping, nonviolent dispute resolution, and war prevention."
From Peace Pledge Union   www.ppu.org.uk/indexa.html  BUDGETING FOR DISARMAMENT

"A key task in the twenty-first century will be to establish effective restraints based on three principles, contrasting sharply with the approaches underlying past and present policies: disarmament (as opposed to arms control); universal constraints on arms (as opposed to non-proliferation); and war prevention (as opposed to regulating warfare)."
Michael Renner http://www.ppu.org.uk/war/peace21century.html   PEACE IN THE 21st CENTURY.  Based on Ending Violent Conflict Worldwatch Paper 146. www.worldwatch.org

"The world military sector is a vast repository of resources -- financial, physical, human and technological. If only a fraction of these resources could be diverted to meet the unmet socioeconomic needs of the developing world, then not only would human welfare be dramatically enhanced, but also many conflicts with their roots in economic deprivation would be averted. In order to realize this 'peace dividend,' however, the over- militarized nations will have to undergo a major restructuring of their forces and a reappraisal of their real military needs. They must accept much more rapid reductions in military spending and make a political commitment to investing what does not need to be retained for the disarmament and decommissioning process itself in development programs to benefit the world's poorest communities. "
Source: Disarmament: The Unfinished Disarmament Agenda, February, 1995. Written and edited by the Special NGO Committee for Disarmament, Geneva, Switzerland. http://www.ncf.carleton.ca/ip/global/coat/24/international/intdevel.txt

"Disarmament is not an end in itself. The end is peace, and security is one of its essential elements. The evolution of international relations reveals today that disarmament is a necessary condition, if not the primary condition, for security since, by a phenomenon of cooperation, it allows other elements of stability and peace to develop. All are well aware that the type of security on which our planet has depended for several decades - a balance of terror based on nuclear deterrence - is a security with a far too high risk level. This awareness should encourage nations to enter into a new phase in their relations, with all due urgency. This is precisely what you are now devoting your attention to, in order to eliminate once and for all the spectre of a nuclear war and of all armed conflict.
The progressive, balanced and controlled elimination of weapons of mass destruction and the stabilization at the lowest possible level of the defensive weapon systems of countries, is an objective that should obtain the necessary consensus as a firs step toward increased security. "
MESSAGE OF JOHN PAUL II TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF UNO DISARMAMENT EFFORTS CANNOT CONCERN ONLY SOME COUNTRIES OR BE CENTERED ONLY ON ONE TYPE OF WEAPON From the Vatican, 31 May 1988 John Paul II

"Human security has emerged as a foreign policy paradigm with the potential to serve as a powerful complement to more traditional security concepts in meeting the range of new threats to people and, ultimately, to governments and multilateral organizations. Human security is best seen as a shift in perspective, which takes people as the principal point of reference in international affairs. The human security agenda seeks to address a range of threats to the safety and security of people. It is fundamentally about putting people first and enhancing our collective ability and capacity to protect human rights, and to ensure the essential peace and stability which is a key pre-requisite for sustainable human development. ...
Human security provides a valuable theoretical basis from which a variety of issues can be dealt with. Its utility and focus may well prove different for a small island state than it will for a large federal nation. For example, the influx of a small number of illegal arms may pose a negligible threat to a large country, yet have much more serious consequences in a smaller nation."
HUMAN SECURITY IN THE AMERICAS THIRTIETH REGULAR SESSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES June 4, 2000 Windsor, Canada OAS/SER.P AG/doc.3851/00 April 26, 2000 (Document presented by the Canadian Delegation)

"How will any form of equity be established unless more resources are aimed at developing people who are at the bottom of the economic ladder? Years after the end of the cold war, the world’s governments continue to spend more than $800 billion a year on arms and the arms trade is once again expanding. Though the bulk of military spending is on conventional arms, the possession of nuclear weapons by the powerful is driving militarism around the globe. Grotesque imbalances result:

"The Western nuclear powers are primarily responsible for keeping the relationship between disarmament and development off the political agenda.

There is a dynamic, triangular relationship between disarmament, development, and security. The more disarmament and development are advanced, the more security is enhanced and strengthened. But most nations haven’t yet made the mental leap that security today requires the development of the human being, not the preparation for war."
DEVELOPMENT AND EQUALITY by Douglas Roche A former Canadian Member of Parliament and mbassador for Disarmament, Douglas Roche is author of The Ultimate Evil: The Fight to Ban Nuclear Weapons and other books, and served for 6 years as GEA's Chairperson

""Human security," defined by the Department of Foreign Affairs as "safety for people from both violent and non-violent threats," is now advanced as one of the fundamental objectives of Canadian foreign policy. Internationally, "human security" is increasingly recognized as the true measure of state security, and yet, in a world of some three dozen armed conflicts, in which civilian casualties far outnumber military casualties, many hundreds of millions of people today have no experience of safety or security. Entrenched economic, social, and political marginalization perpetrate a structural violence that threatens personal safety, well-being, and security and leads with alarming frequency to widespread overt violence. Lives are imperilled by both kinds of violence, a violence that is all too often perpetrated by the very services and institutions charged with the responsibility of protecting them.

Through the UN, other international agencies, and the efforts of certain national governments, the international community is gradually becoming more focussed on the imperative to provide protection to the world’s vulnerable people. The promotion of human security and peacebuilding has spawned a growing variety of concrete non-military governmental and non-governmental efforts to directly address the welfare and safety of people. The serious implementation of human security policies obviously still requires major and long-term peacebuilding efforts, aided by the significant infusion of new resources, but the acceptance of human security as a formal foreign policy objective is a major step forward.

Human security should also have major implications for defence policies and practices. When diplomacy and peacebuilding, and other economic, social, and political responses, fail and civilian populations are victimized by widespread violence and humanitarian crises, military forces are increasingly called upon to come to their rescue. But, without adapting and modifying military forces and their operations to conform to human security standards and imperatives, the world will continue to bring fundamentally inappropriate and counterproductive military responses to bear on humanitarian and human security crises – Kosovo, Chechnya, and Sudan are among the examples currently making headlines."
Defence and Human Security Ploughshares Monitor, December 1999 Defence and human security By Ernie Regehr

"The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything except our thinking. Thus, we are drifting toward catastrophe beyond conception. We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive." -- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

"This letter is an appeal to every secretary, technician, custodian, scientist, engineer, and any other person whose participation supports the world war machine. It is a wake-up call before tomorrow comes. Albert Einstein said: "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." If there is any hope for the survival of humanity it is cooperative survival. It is not competitive survival. A military-oriented world economy must change soon to a people's needs-oriented world economy.I know without any doubt in my heart that the people who work on nuclear weapons are as good as people who work anywhere else. I have met some people with such beautiful souls that I find it impossible to explain why they would work on weapons."

"We have a moral obligation and duty to think, speak, and act first as citizens for a peaceful world, and next as scientists. The higher our education is, the higher our responsibilities are for a humane world."
"Science without virtue is immoral science." - Plato.
"My fellow scientists and engineers, the national labs must change from labs of war to labs of peace if there is to be a chance to avoid the extinction of all life on earth.."
The Reasons for My Resignation from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. By Dr Andreas Toupadakis, Ph.D., 2000 toupadakis@home.com
http://www.trivalleycares.org/toupadakis_open_letter.pdf . http://www.globalcomment.com/articles/currentaffairs/andreas/resignation.htm

"New weapons systems do not bring security. They squander economic resources; they subordinate research and development to military goals. Thinking in military categories deforms intellectual and cultural life. "
"Heavily armed, the world will remain without peace. Disarmament gives peace a chance. One fifth of today's military spending would suffice to ensure everyone a sustained basic supply of food, drinking water, education and public health services.
We propose...
...disarmament, preservation and extension of international arms control treaties, resurrection of the ABM treaty and the Convention on Biological Weapons and all other conventions limiting weapons and weapons technologies; prohibition of arms exports, total nuclear disarmament, complete renunciation of the military use of outer space and no new missile systems. Lasting peaceful solutions to international conflicts must be found, especially in the Near and Middle East.
Let peace be just."
The Dresden Appeal of the Party of Democratic Socialism, Germany, adopted at the 2nd Session of the 7th PDS Congress on 7 October, 2001 From: http://www.spectrezine.org/war/pds.htm

                 They read good books, and
                     quote, but never learn
                 a language other than the
                     scream of rocket burn.
                 Our straighter talk is drowned
                     by ironclad:
                 elections, money, empire, oil
                     and Dad.
Poem attributed to Andrew Motion; the current poet laureate.

"With unfailing consistency, U.S. intervention has been on the side of the rich and powerful of various nations at the expense of the poor and needy. Rather than strengthening democracies, U.S. leaders have overthrown numerous democratically elected governments or other populist regimes in dozens of countries... whenever these nations give evidence of putting the interests of their people ahead of the interests of multinational corporate interests. "
- Michael Parenti, political scientist and author

"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes. And armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended. Its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war . . . and in the degeneracy of manners and morals, engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."
- James Madison, April 20, 1795

"Strike against all ordinances and laws and institutions that continue the slaughter of peace and the butcheries of war. Strike against war, for without you no battles can be fought. Strike against manufacturing shrapnel and gas bombs and all other tools of murder. Strike against preparedness that means death and misery to millions of human beings. Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction. Be heroes in an army of construction."
- Helen Keller

"I'm sick and tired of old men dreaming up wars in which young men do the dying."
- George McGovern during his 1972 presidential campaign

 

(Generally italics and Bold added.)

 

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