Business of Arms

The thousand faces of weapons ...


Business of Arms
- The "business" of world exports allowed is about 28 billion dollars a year;
- 88% of the weapons is provided by the member countries of the Security Council: the United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom;
- In 2001 the United States has sold arms worth nearly $ 10 billion; followed by the UK with $ 4 billion, Russia with $ 3.6 billion, France with $ 1 billion and China with $ 6 billion;
- In the same year, developing countries have been the recipients of 67.6% of the value of all weapons sold: the U.S. is the top supplier of weapons to countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America (41, 7% of the total, for a value of U.S. $ 6 billion); Depending Russia (23.6%, 3.4 billion dollars), the third United Kingdom (22.9%, $ 3.3 billion);
- Have been around for 689 million small arms, one in every ten people, produced by over 1,100 companies in 98 countries;
- Die each year from causes related to the use of arms, 500,000 people to day in 1300, for minute;
- Are produced each year 8 million and 16 million small arms ammunition;
- At least 60% of the weapons end up in the hands of civilians;
- 300,000 child soldiers are involved in armed conflict;
- According to the UN, in the nineties the violence of conventional weapons has killed more than five million people and has forced 50 million people to flee their homes;
- According to the UN, over the last ten years have been blatantly violated arms embargoes against Rwanda, Angola, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Iraq.
indirect weapons. Each year in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America spend an average of $ 22 billion for the purchase of arms, a sum that would have allowed those same countries to fall into line with the Millennium Development Goals, of eliminate illiteracy (estimated $ 10 billion a year) and to reduce infant and maternal mortality (estimated $ 12 billion a year). There are about 639 million small arms around the world today, and 8 million new weapons are produced each year. The total world military spending in a year is 956 billion, while total expenditure (in 11 years!) To achieve the Millennium Development Goals would be 760 billion ... that could be spending would reach only 10 % in less than a year in military spending.
From saying to doing

Weapons and poverty
- A third of countries in the world spends more on arms purchases in social and health care programs;
- 42% of the countries with the highest defense budgets for the bottom of the table set out in the Human Development Index;
- In Africa, the economic losses caused by the conflicts are estimated at 15 billion dollars a year;
- In 2001, world military spending totaled nearly $ 390 billion; at the same time, 1.3 billion people survive on less than one dollar a day;
- Half of the countries in the world spends more on defense than in health.