Sir, - It is alarming to read in MEP Niall Andrews's letter (Irish Times, 12th July) that the European Commission European civil servants, representing you and me - propose an expansion of the European arms trade. Many of our European Union partners, notably France, Britain and Germany, are already responsible for huge arms sales around the globe, north and south.
The unelected commission wants to boost these sales at a time when the European Union is severely cutting its aid to the developing world. A strange order of priorities indeed!
Do the members of the commission realise the enormous waste of resources - resources which could be used for human development - involved in the arms trade? Do they ever stop to think that arms, whether used by dictators' armies or hit men, actually kill people, most frequently civilians and, sadly, even courageous journalists, as we have seen recently? Are they aware that this so called defence related industry is more murderous and more wasteful of lives than the drugs trade - witness Rwanda, Somalia, Angola and Bosnia this decade?
Another of our MEPs, Mary Banotti, wrote recently (Irish Times, July 9th) about the need to establish a European Union code of conduct on the arms trade. Many Irish organisations including Africa Europe Faith and Justice Network, AFrI, Amnesty International, Comhlamh, PaxChristi and Trocaire, are pressing. for the adoption of such a code.
Control of the European arms trade must be a top priority for Ireland's presidency of the European Union, if we really value human life. I, for one, would want no part of a European Union that puts profit for the arms barons ahead of the lives of countless children, women and men. - Yours, etc.,
Bayside Walk,
Dublin 13.