Promoting Democracy Or Fueling Repression?

Frida Berrigan and William D. Hartung

June 02, 2005

Frida Berrigan  and William D. Hartung are a senior research associate and senior fellow, respectively, at the World Policy Institute at the New School. This article is based on their new report, U.S. Weapons at War 2005, available at http://www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/reports/wawjune2005.html.

At a Rose Garden press conference earlier this week, President Bush struck one of his favorite themes, asserting that "the U.S. is a country that promotes freedom around the world." But the reality of  U.S. arms sales policy contradicts Bush's rhetoric.

The United States' longstanding policy of arming, training and aiding some of the world's most repressive regimes has accelerated during the Bush years. Increased weapons shipments have gone to allies like the authoritarian Uzbekistan and the thinly veiled military dictatorship in Pakistan; and to the Philippines and Colombia, where U.S. weapons and training have been turned against civilians.

These are not exceptional cases.

The United States transferred weaponry to 18 to 25 countries involved in active conflicts in 2003, the last year for which full Pentagon data is available. From Chad to Ethiopia, from Nigeria to India, transfers to conflict nations totaled over $1 billion in 2003.

Thirteen of the top 25 recipients of U.S. arms transfers in the developing world are undemocratic according to the State Department's Human Rights Report. Citizens in these countries either "do not have the right to change their own government." or those rights are severely abridged. These undemocratic regimes received over $2.7 billion in U.S. arms transfers in 2003.

Under the rubric of the war on terrorism, military aid has increased precipitously, while scrutiny of the human rights and democracy records of recipients has decreased. Foreign Military Financing, Washington's largest military aid program, increased almost 70 percent between 2001 and 2003-- from $3.5 billion to $6 billion. The largest increases went to U.S. allies in the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan, including Jordan, which saw its military aid increase by $525 million, and Pakistan, which received an additional $224 million. Military aid totals have leveled off at about $4.6 billion since 2003, but the number of countries receiving military aid increased by 50% between 2001 and 2006, from 48 to 71.

A deeper look at a few U.S. arms clients illuminates the contradictions between President Bush's rhetoric and the realities of current policies.

"Uzbekistan is an important partner," asserts General Richard B. Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But, it is also an authoritarian regime with a woeful human rights record and a history of military excesses-including a major crackdown that killed hundreds of civilians a few weeks ago in the town of Andijan.

The relationship began with the war in Afghanistan, when Uzbekistan offered Washington the use of the Karshi-Khanabad air base. In 2002 and 2003, President Islam Karimov's government received $45 million in U.S. military aid-- more than it had received in the previous six years combined. In addition, between 2001 and 2003, the United States sold Uzbekistan more than $37 million in weapons and services.

The abuses of the Karimov regime are so egregious that even Washington was forced to withhold military aid in 2004. But the aid pipeline has since re-opened. Congress granted $10.9 million in 2005, and $4 million has been requested for 2006.

When the Uzbek military opened fire on protesters two weeks ago, killing as many as 500 civilians, U.S. military support of the past five years was partially responsible.

Closer to home, in Colombia, Washington has granted over a billion dollars in military and police aid, training and weaponry, despite the government's record of human rights abuses and the military's continuing support for the vicious paramilitary group United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC, for Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia).

For four decades, Colombia has been engaged in a civil war that has claimed the lives of at least 200,000 people and displaced another two million.

Since the establishment of the Andean Counter-drug Initiative in 2001, the Bush Administration has requested $1.33 billion in police and military aid for Colombia on top of millions in military aid through other programs.

While not the only culprits, the Colombian military and police are responsible for the many of the human rights violations in Colombia, and have the worst record of any security force in the Western Hemisphere. According to the State Department, "some members of the security forces continued to commit serious abuses, including unlawful  extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances."

As the cases of Uzbekistan and Colombia make clear, the time to impose greater scrutiny on U.S. arms transfers and military aid is long overdue. The first step towards a sounder and saner arms sales policy is to implement the underlying assumptions of U.S. arms export law, which call for arming nations only for purposes of self-defense and avoiding arms sales to nations that engage in patterns of systematic human rights abuses.  Stopping arms to dictators is one of the best ways to promote the freedom and democracy that President Bush claims to seek.