Bruton pot-shot at US small-arms trade

By David Cronin

Date: 16/09/04

AMERICA's lax controls on gun ownership are impeding efforts to introduce an international regime preventing terrorists from gaining access to weapons, the European Commission's newly appointed ambassador to Washington says.

John Bruton told this newspaper that striving towards a global convention on curbing the small-arms trade would be high on his list of priorities for his work in the US.

"While we should be deeply concerned about weapons of mass destruction [WMD], we should recognize that a lot of terrorism is taking place with small arms," the former taoiseach (Irish prime minister) explained. "Beslan was a recent example of that.

"Attempts to have an international arrangement to deal with that have stalled on the basis of disagreements. Obviously, this is highly political in the US, with its more liberal regime on personal holdings [of firearms]. But controls are appropriate internationally and we need to strengthen our resolve. If we are to deal with terrorism and non-state violence, then we need to address all the instruments, not just weapons of mass destruction and not just the money."

Bruton also identified climate change as being of similar gravity to WMD.

His comments reflect those of David King, the UK government's chief scientist - who claimed in January that global warming has killed more people than terrorism - and a subsequent warning from the Pentagon that the former could eclipse the latter as the number one geopolitical threat.

Because the US and some other major economies have rejected the Kyoto Protocol on curbing greenhouse emissions, Bruton said, "we may well be in a position where we have to come at the problem from a different angle".

"If the instrument of the climate-change treaty is in need of refurbishment, then let's see if we can get into a constructive dialogue about this," the Irishman added.

Following the acerbic exchanges between the US and some EU countries over Iraq last year, Bruton contended that both sides should strive to agree on joint rules about the use of military force.

The idea that states should only resort to military action if they come under attack requires revision, he said. "With the fall of the Iron Curtain, we are into the new world of states that have failed, or are engaged in genocidal acts.

"I feel the Iraq experience is something from which the entire world can learn. I would be hopeful, in the light of experience, that more sophisticated ground rules on when force may or not be used would evolve."

On trade relations, Bruton envisages that progress on overcoming transatlantic differences can be made once the US presidential election is completed.

He voiced optimism, too, that the Doha round of world trade talks can be brought to a successful conclusion.

Bruton will be the third ex-premier to represent the Commission in the US, after Denmark's Jens Otto Krag and Andreas Van Agt of the Netherlands.

But during the 50-year history of the Commission's diplomatic ties with Washington, the ambassadorial post has usually gone to career civil servants.

Bruton replaces German Günter Burghardt in November.

John Bruton, the European Commission's newly appointed ambassador to Washington says that the United States' lax controls on gun ownership are impeding efforts to introduce an international regime preventing terrorists from gaining access to weapons.