The Belgian North-South movement and the Belgian peace movement, together with the Nepalese lawyer Gopal Siwakoti ‘Chintan', today began a law suit at the council of state (administrative court) to stop the arms export of FN-MINIMI machine-guns to Nepal.
The unwillingness of most Belgian politicians to respect both Belgian law and the European Code of Conduct on arms trading, together with the testimony of the Nepalese lawyer Gopal Siwakoti ‘Chintan’ convinced us of the necessity of starting legal proceedings. The peace movement and North-South movement hopes this legal process will force the Belgian government to respect the current law regarding arms exports. The delivery of machine-guns to Nepal is a clear violation of the Belgian arms export laws and the European Code of Conduct: Clause 4 of the Belgian arms law of August 5th, 1991 explicitly forbids the granting of export licenses if the licenses contradict the international goals that Belgium strives for. In particular, licenses should be denied if the granting of a license contributes to a violation of the human rights. The same clause also forbids the export when the country of destination - has to cope with severe internal tensions that could lead to an armed conflict - is in a civil war - has a government that supports acts of terror The European Code of Conduct (June 8th, 1998) also forbids the delivery of arms to countries where there is a clear risk that the arms could be misused for internal repression or could contribute to, cause, or prolong armed conflicts and internal tensions. Reports from the European Commission, and Amnesty International, have made it clear that there is an ongoing full-scale armed conflict between the Nepalese government and the Maoist guerillia forces. Both parties in the conflict are committing serious violations of human rights. The same reports made it clear that machine-guns are used by the Nepalese army and Nepalese police in many of these violations of human rights. The testimony of Nepalese lawyer Gopal Siwakoti ‘Chintan’ convinced us of the necessity of initiating a juridical procedure. In January 2001, he became a target of a politically motivated physical attack, by an unknown group of people that intended to kill him. The government made no investigation into this attack, despite national and international tension.
The unwillingness of most Belgian politicians to respect both Belgian law and the European Code of Conduct on arms trading, together with the testimony of the Nepalese lawyer Gopal Siwakoti ‘Chintan’ convinced us of the necessity of starting legal proceedings. The peace movement and North-South movement hopes this legal process will force the Belgian government to respect the current law regarding arms exports. The delivery of machine-guns to Nepal is a clear violation of the Belgian arms export laws and the European Code of Conduct: Clause 4 of the Belgian arms law of August 5th, 1991 explicitly forbids the granting of export licenses if the licenses contradict the international goals that Belgium strives for. In particular, licenses should be denied if the granting of a license contributes to a violation of the human rights. The same clause also forbids the export when the country of destination - has to cope with severe internal tensions that could lead to an armed conflict - is in a civil war - has a government that supports acts of terror The European Code of Conduct (June 8th, 1998) also forbids the delivery of arms to countries where there is a clear risk that the arms could be misused for internal repression or could contribute to, cause, or prolong armed conflicts and internal tensions. Reports from the European Commission, and Amnesty International, have made it clear that there is an ongoing full-scale armed conflict between the Nepalese government and the Maoist guerillia forces. Both parties in the conflict are committing serious violations of human rights. The same reports made it clear that machine-guns are used by the Nepalese army and Nepalese police in many of these violations of human rights. The testimony of Nepalese lawyer Gopal Siwakoti ‘Chintan’ convinced us of the necessity of initiating a juridical procedure. In January 2001, he became a target of a politically motivated physical attack, by an unknown group of people that intended to kill him. The government made no investigation into this attack, despite national and international tension.