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Tuesday, April 2, 2013

UN Alert

UN Assembly approves first-ever Arms Trade Treaty

English.news.cn 2013-04-03 06:16:09

April 2 (Xinhua) -- The UN General Assembly by 154-3, with 23 abstentions, on Tuesday passed the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) to limit for the first time international conventional weapons commerce, which was estimated at up to 70 billion U.S. dollars annually.

"This is a victory for the world's people," said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a statement issued while traveling in Europe. "The ATT will make it more difficult for deadly weapons to be diverted into the illicit market and it will help to keep warlords, pirates, terrorists, criminals and their like from acquiring deadly arms."

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Iran and Syria voted against the measure. Cuba, India, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and Sudan were among the abstaining states. Armenia, Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Vietnam were among non-voters.

It was only late Thursday night the ATT Final Conference failed to reach consensus on a treaty text -- objected to by DPRK, Iran and Syria -- when Costa Rica said it was moving for a vote on it as a resolution in the 193-member General Assembly.

Full story
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-04/03/c_132280384.htm

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