Excessive Military
Spending Is A Perversion
Of Values, Costa Rica
President Says At UN
Universal literacy, the
eradication of many
preventable diseases and
safe drinking water for
everyone could all be
achieved if the world
spent as much on those
causes as it already
does on military forces,
Costa Rica’s president,
Oscar Arias Sánchez,
told the United Nations
General Assembly in a
call for a radical
re-think of global
spending.
Arias told the
Assembly’s high-level
debate that many
governments were hurting
their citizens by
indulging in excessive
military spending.
“On a planet where
one-sixth of the
population lives on less
than a dollar a day,
spending us$1.2 trillion
on arms and soldiers is
an offence and a symbol
of irrationality,” Arias
said.
He voiced particular
concern about his own
region, Central America,
where military spending
last year topped us$39
billion, even though the
region “has never been
more peaceful or more
democratic.”
Arias said that even
tiny percentage
reductions in military
spending by countries
could make a major
difference to important
causes and at the same
time not jeopardize
those nations’ defence.
“I know no greater
perversion of values,
and no greater
misplacement of
priorities,” he said of
the current spending
arrangements. “With a
small percentage of
world military spending,
we could give potable
water to all of
humanity, equip all
homes with electricity,
achieve universal
literacy, and eradicate
all preventable
diseases.”
Arias called for
international support
for the Costa Rica
Consensus, an initiative
that would allow the
debts of poor countries
to be forgiven and
increase spending on the
environment, education,
health care and housing
in those States at the
expense of funding arms
and soldiers.
“I also ask for your
support for the arms
trade treaty that Costa
Rica is pushing forward
in the heart of this
Organization, to
prohibit the transfer of
arms to States, groups
or individuals if
sufficient reason exists
to believe that those
arms will be used to
violate human rights or
international law.
“The destructive power
of the 640 million small
arms and light weapons
that exist in the world,
most in the hands of
civilians, deserves the
same or even more
attention than military
spending.” |
