PRESS STATEMENT ECONOMISTS ALLIED FOR ARMS REDUCTION (021) 465-7423 ECAAR-SA 082-577-9227 3B Alpine Mews, High Cape, Cape Town 8001 mailto:ecaar@icon.co.za Monday, May 20, 2002

A class action suit will shortly be filed in the United States against governments and companies that defied the 1977-1994 United Nations arms embargo against apartheid South Africa. It is well documented that European armaments and technology supplied to the apartheid government in violation of international law were used to terrorise the people of South Africa. Despite their previous complicity with the apartheid government, the same governments and companies now violate the European Union's Code of Conduct on Arms Exports in the current "arms deal."

ECAAR-SA has been authorised by lawyers in New York and Cape Town to announce that damages will be sought from courts in the United States for a minimum amount of US$20 billion (approximately R200 billion) for distribution as reparations to victims of apartheid. The action will be brought in the United States in terms of the Alien Tort Act by a class of victims of apartheid being represented by lawyers who successfully represented holocaust victims against Swiss banks.

The UN arms embargo against apartheid ranks as one of the most significant developments of 20th century diplomacy. It led to South Africa's transition to democracy in 1994, and also established that serious violations of human rights take precedence in international law over governmental claims of sovereignty.

ECAAR-SA and Terry Crawford-Browne on November 21, 2001 filed an application in the Cape High Court for nullification of the loan agreements that were signed by the Minister of Finance in January 2000, and which give effect to the arms deal. The application attests that the arms deal is constitutionally unlawful because it is:

a. strategically irrational, there being no conceivable foreign military threat to South Africa to warrant such expenditure on warships and warplanes,
b. economically irrational, being predicated upon discredited suppositions that expenditure of R30 billion on armaments would generate offsets of R110 billion to create 64 165 jobs, and
c. financially irrational, given foreign exchange and other risks impeding the State's ability to meet the commitments to social and economic rights contained in Chapter Two of South Africa's Constitution.

The arms deal was costed at R6.25 per US$1. The collapse of the rand to R12.88 per US$1, notwithstanding its current recovery, confirms the recklessness of the acquisition programme. The Minister of Finance conceded in February 2002 that the cost of the arms deal, even excluding finance costs, had already escalated from R30 billion to R52.7 billion.

Legal teams have, since November, been arguing over procedural points. We are confident that this phase is drawing to a close, and that a court date can shortly be established for consideration of the matters of substance.

Terry Crawford-Browne
May 20, 2002