US Sinks CR-Backed Arms Treaty

New York: The United States delegation to the United Nations has sunk the Costa Rican-backed treaty proposal to limit the international sale of arms. Washington asked for more time "to study and translate" the text.

The U.S. is one of the major suppliers of arms worldwide, a $70 billion business not only there but in Russia and China. The move initiated by a group of Nobel Peace Prize winners headed by former Costa Rican President Oscar Arias had a window of only July 2 to 27.

Unfortunately for the arms limitation treaty, especially to countries rent by civil wars and genocidal conflicts, it has the most powerful nations against it, especially countries whose arms industries would be reduced by more controls. The depressed state of the world economy is also against it.

In the case of the United States, one of the biggest markets for warlike arms is within its own borders where there are more firearms than population. The gun lobby is so powerful, that neither party is willing to touch the issue.

This allowed the ban to lapse on automatic weapons, that is weapons that fire a burst of bullets as long as the trigger is depressed. Even the use of such a weapon, with a 100-shot magazine, by a shooter in Aurora, Colorado, in July, resulting in 12 dead and nearly 50 wounded, hasn't changed this.

It is not unpredictable that a society resembling a Wild West movie regarding the number of residents with weapons should oppose what might well be called the Arias treaty. The domestic possession of weapons is guaranteed by the U.S. 1789 Constitution.

Costa Rica's UN delegate Eduardo Ulibarri noted that the U.S. delay had the approval of India, Russia and China. All are arms-producing nations. Ulibarri lamented to the newspaper La Nacion that a diplomatic maneuver dashed the hopes of not only Costa Rica but of several nations that would have supported the treaty.

Ulibarri speculated that a better move would have been to try to get the issue before the General Assembly session in September. The issue might have appeared before the UN after the November elections in the U.S.

No one during discussions at the UN mentioned either the elections or the massacre Colorado massacre in a crowded theater, Ulibarri said. Under pressure by some African nations, China accepted some controls of light arms but refused to go further.

But the treaty text did not include control of ammunition, due to U.S. pressure. The U.S. produces six billion bullets per year.

Commentary: This may be a decades long, uphill battle. One thing Ulibarri did not mention was pressure by many congressmen in the U.S. to supply arms to the Syrian rebels to speed their victory and to cut short the tragic bloodshed there.

The rebels need not only light arms, but rocket-propelled missiles to fire against armored vehicles used by the Assad government forces. It is unlikely that any Western votes can be mustered in the UN until that conflict is resolved.

The arms control proposal is a noble gesture and Costa Rica should not give up its efforts in disgust but forge ahead. It may be premature but the idea should be planted so it can gestate in world leaders' minds.

One last observation is that, although Costa Rica bans assault weapons, legal arms sales in this country have reached all-time highs. Arms possession is not nearly as extreme as it is in the U.S. but is not the rarity it once was.

By Rod Hughes, Fijatevos.com