hankyoreh

Kim Hee-jin, Director of Amnesty International Korea

Now that the media excitement over the Virginia Tech shooting has settled down, people seem to have started thinking about the issues raised by the tragedy. One of these is the question of guns, something that is not an especially interesting topic for Koreans, perhaps because in Korea public shootings are relatively rare. However, it is a fact that weapons "Made in Korea" are being exported and are playing a part in armed conflicts around the world.

Thirty-three people died at Virginia Tech on April 16, 2007. But at least 500,000 people are killed in arms-related violence the world over each year. If we cared as much about armed conflicts around the globe as we have about the shooting in Virginia, would not we have been able to stop some of this slaughter? The two atomic bombs used in World War II took approximately 180,000 lives, but each year close to 2.7 times than number of people are killed by conventional weapons, particularly by small arms. The weapons that kill well over 1,000 people each day end up in conflicts where there are severe human rights abuses, and there are no strong controls on this movement of weaponry.

The oversupply of arms in Kenya has made the price of an AK-47 as low as that for three goats. In some of the areas of conflict in Africa, you can buy weapons in illegal circulation for as little as US$20.

The U.S. is no exception. "A gun is as easy to get as a packet of cigarettes," Evan Jean Lolless, 34, told the court as he was sentenced to life in prison for murder in the United States in 1997.

The weapons industry creates profit behind little metal devices put together in a way designed to maim and take human life. Who is benefiting the most from such murderous dealings? The U.S., the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and China - all members of the United Nations Security Council - occupy 88 percent of the global conventional weapons export market. The countries that buy weapons are mostly countries where there is seemingly no end to armed conflict and other confrontation in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. In these countries, imported weapons are a major aggravating factor in human rights abuses and atrocities, and the poverty that results leads to a vicious cycle that countries are unable to make their way out of.

A country’s national defense expenditures extort precious resources that could otherwise be spend on medicine and education. These countries spend $22 billion purchasing weapons every year. Half of that would guarantee all children receive elementary school educations.

Many countries are aware of the problems, but laws relating to arms trading are so flimsy they are not enough to actually keep on top of it all. Furthermore, if a country refuses to sell arms to a particular buyer, there is nothing to keep that buyer from going to another supplier. In December of last year, the international community, at the United Nations General Assembly, passed a proposal calling for the establishment of an international treaty on the arms trade. The vote was 153 to 1. The one vote in opposition to the treaty was cast by the U.S. It was in that moment that work begun three years earlier by Amnesty International, Oxfam, and the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) saw fruition. We will have to watch another 500,000 people be killed each year until the treaty is actually put together and for it to take effect, but it is significant that at least the international community has realized the precious value of protecting life and supporting human rights. Thirty-three lives in Virginia as compared to thirty-three lives in countries we barely know the names of: How could the lives of one group be more important than the other? I would hope that Korea does not let the interest it has paid to what took place in Virginia stop here, and that it will have continued interest in life and contribute as a member of the international community.