Ministers and civil society leaders from 18 African countries, U.N. disarmament officials, and arms-control advocates are meeting in the Kenyan capital Nairobi to try to form a united position on a proposed treaty to regulate the global arms trade. The arms treaty is viewed as a critical element in international efforts to reduce the human and economic cost of conflicts, especially in Africa.
18个非洲国家的政府部长和民间团体领导人、联合国裁军事务官员和主张控制军备的活动人士在肯尼亚首都内罗毕开会，争取就一份拟议中的限制全球武器交易的条约达成共识。人们认为这项军备控制条约对于各国争取减少交战冲突造成的人员和经济损失的努力至关重要，对非洲地区尤为如此。
Speaking at the opening of the arms treaty conference on Wednesday, Kenya's Assistant Foreign Minister Richard Onyonka urged quick ratification of the Arms Trade Treaty, saying that unregulated weapons sales posed one of the biggest threats to long-term development in Africa.
肯尼亚外交部助理部长奥尼翁卡星期三在这次武器条约大会的开幕式上发言，敦促各国尽快批准《武器贸易条约》。他说，不受控制的武器交易是非洲长期发展面临的最严重威胁之一。
"Development and reduction of violence go hand-in-hand. Long-term development is impossible without long-term security. The linkage could not find a better context than the situation in Africa. The cost of armed conflicts and violence, as well as the concomitant human tragedy here in Africa, is conservatively estimated at $18 billion annually," he said.
他说：“发展和减少暴力是相辅相成的。如果没有长期安全，长期发展就无从谈起。这种联系在非洲表现得最为清楚。据保守估计，暴力和武装冲突及其造成的人员伤亡每年给非洲带来180亿美元的损失。”
The cost is mostly through lost human and economic potential and it is roughly equivalent to the amount of aid that the continent receives from donor nations each year.
这些损失主要体现在人员伤亡和经济潜力遭到破坏，而损失的数额大体上相当于非洲大陆每年从捐赠国那里获得的援助。
The proposed treaty would not to ban the sale of conventional arms. But it would establish common standards that all nations would have to abide by, including prohibiting the transfer of weapons if they are likely to be used to violate human rights and humanitarian law or if they could fuel an existing conflict or hinder development.
这项拟议中的条约并不会禁止常规武器交易。但是条约将建立一些各国都必须遵守的共同准则，包括禁止出售可能用来侵犯人权、违反人权法、加剧冲突或者阻碍发展的武器。
The head of the U.N.'s Conventional Arms Branch for Disarmament Affairs Daniel Prins tells VOA that such standards are urgently needed because the global arms trade is believed to be adding eight million more guns a year to the 650 million in circulation around the world. And 60 percent of those guns are in the hands of civilians, most of them in developing countries.
联合国裁军事务部负责常规武器项目的普林斯告诉美国之音，国际上急需这些准则，因为据信全球武器贸易每年使市场上交易的枪支增加800万支，使世界范围的枪支流通量达到6亿5000万支，其中60%在平民手中，大部分在发展中国家里。
"Many states do not have a framework of rules under which they would export or import weapons and that is very much needed because we see that the old structure in the world, where you have a few producers and many recipients of arms, do not count anymore. For instance, we see in the field of small arms that there are now more than 100 countries that produce arms," he said.
他说：“许多国家没有约束武器进出口的规定，而这些规定十分必要，因为我们看到，过去那种只有少数武器制造商和大量武器购买者的结构已经不存在了。比如，在小型武器方面，我们看到，制造这种武器的国家已经超过100个。”
At the U.N. General Assembly two years ago, 153 states voted in favor of the Arms Trade Treaty, 24 states abstained, and the world's largest arms exporter, the United States, voted against it. The Bush administration was criticized for arguing that the treaty was unnecessary because the United States and other major exporting countries have strict national rules governing arms exports.
在两年前的联合国大会上，153个国家投票赞成《武器贸易条约》，24个国家投弃权票，世界最大的武器出口国美国投了反对票。布什政府声称，这个条约没有必要，因为美国和其它主要武器出口国有严格的国内条例规范武器出口。布什政府因此受到外界批评。
Ambassador Philip Richard Owade from the Permanent Mission of Kenya to the United Nations in Geneva says he believes it is up to countries that suffer the most from arms proliferation to show unity in favoring the passage of an arms treaty and help move the process toward a global consensus. "As you know, treaties quite often do not have to be universal from the word, 'go.' Those who are willing would go ahead and then develop norms that we hope in the end, even those who are against it would be able to embrace," he said.
Under the treaty, governments would also be required to report their arms transfers to an international register, a move which arms control advocates say will lead to greater public scrutiny and confidence. |