Canada: Online Report Links ''Military Exports'' to Human/Labor Rights Abuses

Published by

Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT)

| By | Thursday, June 21, 2001

This year, the annual report of the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade
(COAT) is entitled: "Canada's Military Exports: Fuelling wars and abusing international human/labour rights."

It is now available online at the COAT web site:

http://www.ncf.ca/coat

This detailed report provides data on Canada's military exports (between
1990 and 1999) and documents some of the ways in which the federal
government is actively encouraging domestic corporations to export a wide
range of military equipment to many of the world's most violent and abusive
regimes.

The report juxtaposes this data on Canada's military exports with summaries
of armed conflicts, human rights violations and abuses of labour rights by
the same governments that are purchasing Canadian military components and
weapons systems. (Statistics published in the latest annual report of the
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) are compared
with information from the annual reports of Amnesty International, the
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and many other sources.)

Also included is information on how the Canadian government is encouraging
Canadian businesses to take advantage of lucrative investment opportunities
in various "export processing zones" (EPZs) in the same Third World
countries where Canada is exporting military and police equipment. Unions,
collective bargaining and strikes are completely outlawed in such EPZs.
Canadian firms can therefore import extremely inexpensive products from
exploitative sweatshops in EPZs because strikes and non-violent protests
are suppressed by police and military forces that are, in part, armed by
Canadian corporations.

The link between Canada's profitable, subsidized military industries and
their exports to dozens of repressive regimes which abuse labour and other
human rights has long been a major focus of the work of the Coalition to
Oppose the Arms Trade.

Here is the list of articles and tables which are now accessible online at
the COAT website.

Table of Contents:

Press for Conversion! (Issue 44) April 2001

Canada's Military Exports...............................3

Table: Fuelling Wars and Armed Conflicts in the 1990s...3

Supporting NATO's War Crimes in Yugoslavia..............4

Table: Canada's Military Exports to NATO Countries......5

Key: 'Military Equipment Types' Exported by Canada......6

'Target Markets' for Canadian Military Exporters........6

Table: Selected Cdn. Corporations & Military Exports....7

Case Studies:

Bangladesh..............................................8

Brazil.................................................10

Chile..................................................12

Egypt..................................................14

Indonesia..............................................16

Israel.................................................18

Korea (South)..........................................20

Malaysia...............................................22

Morocco................................................24

Philippines............................................26

Saudi Arabia...........................................28

Singapore..............................................30

Taiwan.................................................32

Thailand...............................................34

Turkey.................................................36

UAE....................................................38

Venezuela..............................................39

AMP Section Name:War & Disaster Profiteering

124 War & Disaster Profiteering