Experts fear loophole in legislation makes US arms sales to human rights abusers easier

Forensic
experts investigate the scene at the community hall where
Saudi-led warplanes struck a funeral in Sanaa, the capital of
Yemen, October 9, 2016.
Khaled
Abdullah/Reuters

• The Trump administration’s new Conventional Arms
  Transfer policy will make it easier for US companies to sell
  weapons to countries that commit human rights
  abuses, The
  Intercept reported.
• A one-word change in the policy, prohibiting weapons
  sales to governments that “intentionally” kill civilians, could
  create what the Intercept called a “loophole.”
• “Depending on how this policy is implemented, this
  focus could make it harder for those in the U.S. government
  [with] legitimate human rights concerns to block or modify some
  proposed U.S. arms sales,” Colby Goodman, an arms sales
  researcher and director of the Security Assistance Monitor at
  the Center for International Policy told The Intercept

Arms control experts have voiced concerns over possible loopholes
in President Trump’s new arms export policy, which they argue may
make it easier for US companies to sell weapon to governments
that violate human rights,
The Intercept reported.

In April the Trump Administration issued its new Conventional
Arms Transfer policy. The new rules were criticised by human
rights groups and arms control advocates, including Amnesty
International and the Arms Control Association, for prioritising
a relaxed arms sales regime over transparency and human rights.

The White House said it would “advocate
strongly on behalf of United States companies.” The Intercept
reported.

The policy change could ease the path of arms transfers from the
United States to, in particular, its two largest weapons
customers, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Both are
pursuing an ongoing bombing campaign in Yemen which has so far
killed over 5,000 civilians.

The loophole could be created by a one-word change from
Obama’s Conventional Arms Transfer Policy, issued in 2014.
The old policy prohibited arms transfers to countries that commit
“attacks directed against civilian objects or civilians,” whereas
the Trump administration’s new policy bars transfers that are
“intentionally” directed against civilian objects or civilians.

A two-month consultation period followed the release of the new
policy in April, which ended last month. On Monday the
State-department published a statement that said the policy would
energise “whole-of-government effort to expedite transfers that
support [the administration’s] essential foreign policy and
national security objectives.”

Colby Goodman, an arms sales researcher and director of the
Security Assistance Monitor at the Center for International
Policy told The Intercept that arms groups had objected to the
word “intentional,” but no changes had been made.

“Depending on how this policy is implemented, this focus could
make it harder for those in the U.S. government [with] legitimate
human rights concerns to block or modify some proposed U.S. arms
sales,” he said.

The current administration’s new wording could help the US sell
arms to countries that repeatedly kill civilians, by relying on
the argument that the civilian casualties are unintentional.

One Trump aide, speaking in April on the condition of
anonymity, told
Reuters that the Trump adminstration has been aiming to
reduce human rights restrictions which have led to a “veto” over
some arms deals.

Despite concerns from Amnesty International and other groups over
the new policy, the Obama administration also supported arms
sales to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, selling $20 billion
worth of weapons in the face of opposition from human rights
groups and under the pretext that civilian casualties in Yemen
were unintentional.

“Those hoping this administration might learn lessons from the
past about how U.S. weapons ended up being misused, or show
proper restraint in sales to countries such as Saudi Arabia and
the UAE, have nothing to cheer in the new policy or its
implementation plan to date,” Jeff Abramson, a senior fellow at
the Arms Control Association told The Intercept.