US should set example on limiting arms exports

IT IS understandable why the Bush administration is pleased about the European Union's decision to put off lifting its arms embargo on China until next year. Among other things, lifting the embargo has the potential to shift the balance of power in the Taiwan Strait and to allow the further proliferation of weapons technology. However, the administration's ability to get Europe to change its mind permanently would be enhanced if the United States had a more enlightened arms sales policy. Like its predecessors, the Bush administration has adamantly resisted any attempts to curb America's own arms sales or to establish a code of conduct for these sales.

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According to the Congressional Research Service, between 2000 and 2003 -- the last year for which accurate figures are available -- worldwide arms sales totaled $148 billion. The US share amounted to $76 billion, more than the rest of the world combined, a trade that is estimated to kill thousands of innocents annually.

And while the president criticizes Europe for wanting to sell arms to China, which still has an egregious human rights record, the United States consistently exports arms to some of the worst human rights offenders. In 2003 alone, 46.2 percent of US arms sales went to the developing world, many to regimes in volatile regions with poor human rights records.

For example, the Middle East: In the last four years, the United States sold more than $12 billion in arms to Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Kuwait, none of which meets any criteria for democratic governance or has a sterling record on human rights.

In Saudi Arabia, according to the State Department 2004 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, security forces ''abuse detainees and prisoners, arbitrarily arrest and hold persons in incommunicado detention," the judicial system remains flawed, and the government restricts freedom of speech, press, religion, and movement, continues to ''discriminate against women, ethnic, and religious minorities and to impose strict limitations on worker rights."

Egypt is no better. The State Department called its human rights record poor, providing examples such as the torture of prisoners, arbitrary arrest and detention, and restrictions on freedom of press and assembly.

The administration's case against the Europeans is weakened further because in the last four years it delivered $3 billion in arms to Israel, the second largest arms provider to China after Russia. It has never put pressure on Russia to reduce its arms sales to China.

Finally, there is evidence that US companies have been indirectly selling arms to China despite the embargo. According to Dieter Dettke of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, 6.7 percent of Chinese dual-use imports come from the United States while only 2.7 percent come from Europe.   Continued...