” “"The pressing strengthening of control of the transfer of arms" to "stop an ever-expanding chain of private brokers that feed murder, rape and torture", is the request of Amnesty international in a report published today, about the more and more sophisticated traffic in arms across the world, especially towards the developing countries with the involvements of such intermediaries as China, the Arab Emirates, Israel, Italy, Holland, the United Kingdom, the USA, Switzerland, Ukraine and the Balkans. "Customs controls are ‘soft’ explains Brian Wood from Amnesty international and just 35 countries have enforced laws about the brokerage of arms". The report describes "the secretive, lawless and irresponsible nature" of many operations of transfer of arms, with examples of traffics from Bosnia-Herzegovina to Iraq, from a Brazilian factory to Saudi Arabia and Mauritius through a British-Dutch forwarding agent, from China to Liberia through a Dutch broker. Some private companies, denounces the report, have even been used "with public funds, to support the peace missions of the United Nations". Some recommendations to secure stricter controls: national laws and regulations to prevent transfers of arms which contribute to serious breaches of human rights; an international protocol based on shared ethical standards; establishing it is a crime to breach the UN embargoes on arms; and increasing international aids to strengthen customs controls.” “
