By Jacob Grech
The Gulf War highlighted, amongst other things, the role of the international arms trade in fuelling wars. It even seemed at one stage that the arms trade might being questioned in the mainstream media.
The fact that media magnate Rupert Murdoch sits on the board of directors of one of the largest weapons manufacturing companies in the world, United Technologies, may have something to do with the way the whole question of the arms trade was quickly hijacked and changed to "How did such a butcher get that many weapons in the first place" (the butcher referred to being Saddam Hussein, not George Bush or Bob Hawke).
This diversion was extremely effective, with many peace groups focussing on the supply of arms to Iraq and failing to address the question of arming other terrorist governments such as the United States. The supply of weaponry to a repressive government was seen as an aberration rather than the norm and, further, a practice in which Australia is not involved.
"We do not have a history of exporting weapons that can be used in countries that have gross human rights abuses", said defence minister Robert Ray during a Senate debate on the arms trade in February. The truth is Australia not only sells weaponry to countries that have gross human rights abuses, such as the Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar and Brazil, but the federal government is actively pursuing an increased role in the world's arms market for Australian industry.
Legislative changes streamlining arms exports were adopted in 1988, removing many of the controls on arms exports which previously existed.
The approval in principle of a private enterprise weapons testing range, to be established at Maralinga, and the support given to the new rocket launching base on Cape York are partly designed to attract arms manufacturers to Australia.
Subsidising Australian arms companies to attend overseas military and paramilitary trade fairs, advertising Australia as an ideal place to establish Asian-Pacific branches in foreign military trade journals and offering the use of Australian universities for weapons research are just some of the ways in which the Australian government is spending taxpayers' money to promote the Australian arms industry.
One of the major pushes for increased weapons sales is AIDEX '91, to be held at the National Exhibition Centre, Canberra, on
November 26-28. AIDEX is a trade fair which more than 200 companies will gather with military, paramilitary and police representatives to buy and sell ever more efficient machinery of mutilation and murder.
Together with the Richmond Air Show in Sydney in October and a number of conferences around military issues in Canberra during the exhibition, AIDEX is a primary means for the arms industry to push its wares.
This arms bazaar should be stopped. Many actions are being planned for AIDEX and its lead-up events. More information on these may be obtained from the Stop AIDEX Campaign, PO Box 24, Kings Cross NSW 2011.