Unarmed Costa Rica Calls
For Disarmament
Costa Rican president,
Oscar Arias Sanchez,
has called for a global
reduction of military
spending.
"The perverse logic that
leads a poor nation to
spend excessive sums on
its armies, and not on
its people, is exactly
the antithesis of human
security, and a serious
threat to international
security," said Arias in
an address before the UN
Security Council, over
which Costa Rica
presides this month.
Although Costa Rica has
no military, "it is not
a naive nation,"
stressed Arias, a 1987
Novel Peace Prize
laureate.
"We have not come here
for the abolition of all
armies. We have not even
come to urge the drastic
reduction of world
military spending, which
has reached us$3.3
billion dollars a day.”
He suggested that "a
gradual reduction is not
only possible, but also
imperative, particularly
for developing nations.”
Sanchez also urged the
world body to adopt a
treaty regulating arm
exports, saying "The
destructive power of the
640 million small arms
and light weapons that
exist in the world, 74
percent in the hands of
civilians, has proven to
be more lethal than
nuclear weapons, and is
one of the primary
threats to national and
international security.
“
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