Germany has for the past 30 years violated arm exports rules, according to a study by the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt (Prif).
“Germany licenses and exports weapons of war and armaments to countries affected by war and crisis, to countries with human rights violations and to regions of tension,” said Prif as quoted by EUobserver on Monday.
The study says Germany systematically breached EU criteria when it comes to arms exports.
The EU criteria includes “respect for human rights and international humanitarian law by the country of final destination” and “maintenance of peace, security and stability in a region.”
Germany has “repeatedly violated these criteria,” the study said.
PRIF also said old stocks of the Bundeswehr armed forces and the former East Germany’s National People’s Army were partly transferred to countries that are neither EU nor NATO members.
“The general ban from 1971 on supplying weapons of war from Germany to non-NATO states has given way to a complicated set of rules consisting of laws, political principles and various procedures, which are supplemented by further regulations at European and international level,” the study stated./
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