2006年VOA标准英语-Senior UN Official Urges End to Arms Sales

By Lisa Schlein
Geneva
02 February 2006

A senior United Nations official is calling on nations to stop selling arms to African countries. The official says Africa is awash with weapons which are at the root of the continent's massive problem of internal displacement¹.

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The United Nations estimates 25 million people around the world are homeless. They have been uprooted² by conflict. More than one-half are in Africa. This means there are more than three times as many internally displaced people in Africa than there are refugees, who number around three million. 
 

 
Medina Khalil Arbab who has temporarily returned to Borta village in West Darfur in order to cultivate her crops sits with her unidentified son (File photo - August 26, 2005) 
  

Dennis McNamara heads the U.N. Division that deals with Internally Displaced Persons or IDPs. He calls Africa's IDPs the continent's new refugees. But, he says these people have not crossed an international border and are not recognized as refugees. Therefore, he says there is no United Nations agency to look after them, there are no international conventions to protect them.

"It is massive. It is widespread. It is ongoing³. It is the scourge⁴ of Africa. It is a major, major humanitarian⁵ issue for which there is no single agency, for which there is no international convention, for which there is no sustained focus, and for which there is minimal⁶ media coverage," he said. "A third of this displaced population is not even reached by the agencies. We have got one-quarter of a million Somalis displaced in Mogadishu and we cannot even land in Mogadishu. We are not allowed to land the plane there."

McNamara says IDPs often get little help from their own governments that in many cases are to blame for the human rights violations⁷ that cause people to flee their homes. 

South Sudanese refugees return to their country   
  
He says the problem is hidden. For example, he notes no one knows how many people are displaced in the Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. This is because many people are hiding in the jungle or dispersed⁸ in poor villages.

McNamara cites a recent article published in a British journal that highlights the enormity of the problem. The article reports 38,000 people die every month from direct or indirect causes of war in eastern Congo. It calls this the most deadly conflict since World War II, exceeding the combined deaths from conflicts in Bosnia Herzegovina, Rwanda, Kosovo and Darfur in Sudan.
 

Ivory Coast rebels  
  
McNamara says guns are at the heart of the problem. He says the West should stop selling arms to Africa.

"Not an embargo⁹. Not a sanction. A voluntary cessation of all arms sales to Africa. The continent is swimming in arms," he added. "The kids on the streets of Nairobi, in Khartoum, in Abidjan, in Monrovia have guns in their pockets or up their sleeves. They shoot motorists at the roundabout. They rob you on the highways with AK-47s…. We provided the arms. We, we the west. We, the G-8."

McNamara says defense¹⁰ ministries¹¹ spend one trillion dollars a year on buying arms. He says it is hard to give up profits like this. But, he warns wars, displacements¹², deaths and violations of the human body and spirit will continue in Africa unless the arms merchants stop engaging in business as usual.

1 displacement   

n.移置，取代，位移，排水量

参考例句：

• They said that time is the feeling of spatial displacement.他们说时间是空间位移的感觉。
• The displacement of all my energy into caring for the baby.我所有精力都放在了照顾宝宝上。

2 uprooted   

v.把（某物）连根拔起( uproot的过去式和过去分词 )；根除；赶走；把…赶出家园

参考例句：

• Many people were uprooted from their homes by the flood. 水灾令许多人背井离乡。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The hurricane blew with such force that trees were uprooted. 飓风强烈地刮着，树都被连根拔起了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

4 scourge   

n.灾难，祸害；v.蹂躏

参考例句：

• Smallpox was once the scourge of the world.天花曾是世界的大患。
• The new boss was the scourge of the inefficient.新老板来了以后，不称职的人就遭殃了。

5 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

6 minimal   

adj.尽可能少的，最小的

参考例句：

• They referred to this kind of art as minimal art.他们把这种艺术叫微型艺术。
• I stayed with friends, so my expenses were minimal.我住在朋友家，所以我的花费很小。

7 violations   

违反( violation的名词复数 )； 冒犯； 违反（行为、事例）； 强奸

参考例句：

• This is one of the commonest traffic violations. 这是常见的违反交通规则之例。
• These violations of the code must cease forthwith. 这些违犯法规的行为必须立即停止。

8 dispersed   

adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的

参考例句：

• The clouds dispersed themselves. 云散了。
• After school the children dispersed to their homes. 放学后，孩子们四散回家了。

9 embargo   

n.禁运（令）；vt.对...实行禁运，禁止（通商）

参考例句：

• This country put an oil embargo on an enemy country.该国对敌国实行石油禁运。
• During the war,they laid an embargo on commerce with enemy countries.在战争期间，他们禁止与敌国通商。

10 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

11 ministries   

（政府的）部( ministry的名词复数 )； 神职； 牧师职位； 神职任期

参考例句：

• Local authorities must refer everything to the central ministries. 地方管理机构应请示中央主管部门。
• The number of Ministries has been pared down by a third. 部委的数量已经减少了1/3。

12 displacements   

n.取代( displacement的名词复数 )；替代；移位；免职

参考例句：

• The laws of physics are symmetrical for translational displacements. 物理定律对平移是对称的。 来自辞典例句
• We encounter only displacements of the first type. 我们只遇到第一类的驱替。 来自辞典例句