Disarmament, an urgent need to be met

29. Regional conflicts have cost the lives of about seventeen million people in under fifty years. "In the 1980's, world military expenditures grew to unprecedented peacetime level; at an estimated [annual] $$1 trillion [one million million], they accounted for roughly 5 per cent of total world income"(⁴⁵). This demonstrates the importance and the urgent need for all political and economic leaders to ensure that the vast amounts of money earmarked for death, in the northern hemisphere as in the southern hemisphere, should henceforth be earmarked for life. Such an attitude would be the practical implementation of the moral grounds militating in favour of progressive disarmament. Such a course would also provide the opportunity to release substantial financial resources, for the benefit of developing countries, and vital for their authentic progress(⁴⁶). One particularly resilient "structure of sin" is the export of weapons. This occurs in quantities which far exceed the lawful self-defence needs of the purchasing countries, or even the use by international traffickers, whose catalogues, produced for the benefit of those who can afford to pay, contain the most highly sophisticated weapons. In this field, corruption is rife; but the evil caused is even more deep-seated. Congratulations are due to those governments which, on coming to power after regimes that had formerly committed their countries to purchasing weapons far in excess of their needs, have found the courage to terminate such agreements with the risk of losing goodwill and the support of arms exporting countries.