arms trade

New report reveals alarming investment practices by financial groups

December 11, the financial watchdog Netwerk Vlaanderen NGO (B) launches the report ‘Bank Secrets'. The dossier details the investments by 121 financial groups in companies violating fundamental human rights.

New report on universities funding from the arms trade in the UK

This new report reveals that 26 top UK universities have received contracts for at
least £725 million over six years from arms companies and public military bodies. The report, Study War No More, is published jointly by the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FoR) and CAAT.

To read the full report go to:

The Center for Public Integrity is releasing their latest investigative report. Following up the Center's highly acclaimed 2003 Windfalls of War, which profiled U.S. contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, their staff have worked to expose further information about what's behind those contracts:

KBR, Inc., the global engineering and construction giant, won more than $16 billion in U.S.

By Joanne Sheehan

If our goal is to close down weapons production and military bases, we need to consider what happens to the workers, the facilities, the land and the economy of the community. Economic conversion also called defense, conversion, arms conversion or peace conversion, is the planned redirection of resources from military to socially useful civilian activities, primarily new product development. It is a participatory process involving business, government, labor, and the community.

This is the 10th issue of War Profiteers' News, and also the last one for the year 2007.

A recent gathering by the Peace Economy Project (USA) brought together activists and researchers who had been involved in the 1980's and 90's in campaigns for the conversion of arms industries, with an interest in renewing this work.

A new edition of Defense Systems and Equipment International (DSEi) has passed. One of the biggest arms fair in the world that takes place in London , UK.

Arms Fairs are the trade exhibitions for military industry which are an integral and important part of the international arms trade. They happen all over the world, from Paris to Jakarta and provide arms companies with a forum for marketing their goods and services, and an opportunity to discuss collaboration on military projects.

A contingent of Pakistani peacekeepers was accused of selling gold and guns between 2005 and 2006 to Congolese militia groups they were meant to disarm.

The investigation, which began in early 2006, found no evidence of gun-running.

Pakistani officials have previously denied all the accusations, describing the allegations as "baseless".

In May the UN said it would seek to discipline anyone who had compromised peacekeeping in DR Congo by trafficking in gold or guns.

In a press release AXA announes to pull out investments of companies that produce anti-personnel mines and cluster munitions. This is surprising good news from the Paris headquarters of this bank-insurance company. For last years AXA has shown heavy reluctance to adopt stricter weapon investment policies.

For more information: http://www.netwerkvlaanderen.be/en/

Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) has welcomed the Prime Minister's announcement that the Defence Export Services Organisation (DESO) is to be shut down. The news follows a high-profile campaign by CAAT and other groups for the closure of DESO, a Government unit whose purpose is to promote sales for private arms companies, despite being funded with taxpayers' money. CAAT hopes that with the closure of DESO, the undemocratic power of arms companies in the UK will be brought to an end.

These last months have come with many new developments around campaigns against war profiteers. We have already announced some of them in previous issues of the WPN - for example that Reed Elsevier will not organise the DSEi arms fair any longer. Now this month comes with news from the UK and the closure of the Defence Export Services Organisation (DESO). Also we learnt that AXA who was our War Profiteer of the Month in April, has started to disinvest partly from landmines and cluster munitions.