DISARMAMENT: U.N. Creates Database to Monitor Small Arms Flow

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, May 16 1996 (IPS) - Jolted by the rising number of civilian killings by landmines and assault rifles, the United Nations has set up a new database to monitor the flow of light weapons worldwide.

“Small arms were the sole instruments of violence in nearly 95 percent of all global conflicts,” Swadesh Rana, senior political affairs officer of the U.N. Centre for Disarmament Affairs, told reporters Wednesday.

Addressing a briefing sponsored by the Washington-based British American Security Information Council (BASIC), Rana expressed concern over the continued devastation caused by small arms in conflicts in Asia, Africa and Europe.

Referring to the database, she said the United Nations will collect, retrieve and compile data about the direct and indirect consequences of the use of small arms.

The proliferation of small arms– including mortars, rifles, machine guns and grenade launchers– has reached crisis proportion, forcing the world body to initiate action alerting the international community to the dangers of the new phenomenon.

Of the 49 military conflicts during 1995, small arms were the primary instruments of violence in all, and the only means in 46 of them, Rana said.

“Each of these conflicts accounted for over 1,000 deaths in a year. And, in some cases, the casualty figures were closer to tens and hundreds of thousands,” she said.

“The killings, and chaos, resulting from the use of such weapons was out of proportion either to their technological sophistication or their financial costs,” Rana stressed.

Last year Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali complained that the United Nations is not doing enough to curb the proliferation of small arms. “The world is awash with them and traffic in them is very difficult to monitor, let alone intercept,” he said.

Boutros-Ghali has proposed that the existing U.N. arms register be expanded to include imports and exports of small arms.

The register currently records the import and export of only seven major categories of arms: battle tanks; armoured combat vehicles; large calibre artillery systems; fighter aircraft; attack helicopters; warships; and missiles and missile launchers.

Boutros-Ghali says progress in controlling the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and major weapons systems must be followed by progress in conventional arms, especially light weapons.

The light weapons — the manufacture of which is currently one of the world’s fastest growing industries — traditionally have been produced by conventional arms exporters such as the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and Russia.

These traditional sources are now being supplemented by products from about 35 developing countries, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Mexico, North Korea, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, and Venezuela.

Rana said that more than 75 percent of the small arms produced in the Third World are based on Western designs or are variants of designs developed in industrial countries.

Natalie Goldring, Project Director on Light Weapons at BASIC, said that demobilisation alone won’t answer to the problem. Unless the demobilised weapons are destroyed, they are bound to be recycled, she said.

Last month, President Alpha Oumar Konare of Mali presided over a ceremony culminating in a bonfire of small arms, sealing the peace achieved by warring factions in his country.

The huge pile of small arms, consisting of 2,642 rifles, pistols, machine guns and grenade launchers, was surrendered by combatants in the war. Similar exercises are being planned in Mauritania, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, and Gabon.

Goldring admitted that information on weapons transfers is hard to come by because of the secretive nature of the global arms trade. She said it was in the commercial interest of U.S. defence contractors to remain tight-lipped.

Goldring also said that it is tragic that “weapons are an acceptable instrument of U.S. foreign policy.”

At a seminar on light weapons held in New Delhi in November, Jasjit Singh of the Indian Pugwash Society said the spread of small arms has already reached levels that seriously threaten both national and international security.

Pointing out the gravity of the situation, he said that besides the nearly 110 million landmines strewn across the world’s past and present battlefields, there are also some 500 million handguns in circulation, including 55 million Kalshnikov automatic assault rifles.

“Current trends indicate that the state is losing its traditional monopoly over the instruments of violence,” he said.

Singh said, “There is no doubt that the problem of the spread of small arms and light weapons must be addressed at the highest priority, if we are to ensure international, national and societal peace and harmony.”