More on the arms trade

In Le Monde Diplo:

The trade in small arms and light weapons is only a fraction of that in conventional military equipment, but is just as lethal. Secrecy and lack of accountability mean that accurate, up-to-date statistics on the global arms trade are hard to obtain and must be treated with caution. However, one set of data, based on estimates of military articles and services traded by value, claims that 35 countries are responsible for 90% of the world’s arms exports, and that, during the period 1997-2005, developing countries’ share of such imports increased to 68.5%.

See also this earlier post on the Global Weapons Market.