Global, Global Geopolitics, Headlines, Human Rights

POLITICS: Small Arms, Big Problem

Haider Rizvi

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 12 2005 (IPS) - As officials from around the world gather here to report what their nations have done in the past four years to stop the illicit trade in guns and other small weapons, international civil society groups say most governments deserve a failing grade.

"Governments are not doing enough," Rebecca Peters, director of the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), told reporters Tuesday. "The U.N. conference must take action."

IANSA, a global network of more than 600 civil society organisations, raised questions about the performance of governments in a new report, "Examining the Implementation of the U.N. Programme of Action."

The report says that more than 100 countries have no national action plans whatsoever to control the illegal trade in guns and other light weapons, nor have they reviewed their laws on small weapons – the minimal steps required by a U.N. agreement signed in 2001.

Worldwide, the illegal business in guns and other light weapons takes the lives of 300,000 people every year, most of them civilians, according to the report. It also claims that in the context of war and armed conflict, 60,000 to 90,000 people are killed every year.

IANSA researchers said that in addition to the poor performance regarding the implementation of the U.N. Programme of Action, they were "extremely disappointed" with the role of South Asian governments.

"Small arms are an increasing concern in South Asia, with ongoing conflicts being fought overwhelmingly with small arms and with improvised explosive devices," they said in the report, noting that since 2001, there has been no coordinated sub-regional action taken by governments to implement the U.N. Programme of Action.

Despite improvement in relations between India and Pakistan over the disputed territory of Kashmir, the report said both countries continued to face armed conflicts and insurgencies.

Throughout India, a number of armed groups are operating, and in many areas insurgency is extremely active. Similarly, in Pakistan, the law and order situation in Baluchistan Province continues to deteriorate, while the stability of Bangladesh has been threatened by the presence of foreign insurgent groups.

Brazil, South Africa and Sri Lanka were some of the nations they commended as making progress in destroying illegal weapons.

According to the U.N. Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), armed conflict is now the driving force behind most refugee flows. Last year, according to the U.N. agency, more than 11 million people were forced to flee their home countries.

In addition to being homeless, many refugees are injured by guns, says IANSA, adding that in a refugee camp in Kenya, more than 10 percent of the refugees had suffered gunshot injuries, the most common cause of disability among the refugees.

Experts say the task of post-conflict rebuilding and reconciliation is made much more difficult by the large number of arms that remain in circulation in most conflict zones.

"The international community is only starting meet this critical disarming challenge," said Keith Krause, director of the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey, who thinks that the media and research groups "routinely undercount direct conflict deaths."

He said beyond the estimated 100,000 direct deaths, ongoing wars also cause a larger, but "unquantifiable", number of deaths due to conflict-related social disruption, which leads to malnutrition, starvation and deaths from preventable diseases.

Krause’s research shows that small arms also play a role in these deaths by blocking the access of humanitarian and relief organisations to refugees and other vulnerable people.

Activists argue that most governments are shying away from taking responsibility for implementing the U.N. Programme of Action because they know it is not legally binding.

"There is no legally-binding instrument to control arms brokering," said Paul Eavis, director of Saferworld, a UK-based anti-violence research group. "That’s one of the reasons why we are not getting very far."

In a statement Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan shared their concerns.

"We must not relax our efforts to combat the scourge of illicit small arms, which continue to kill, maim and displace scores of thousands of innocent people every year," he told official delegates, urging them to "expedite" negotiations on a legally-binding instrument against illicit arms.

Annan’s statement also claimed a link between the fight against the gun trade and poverty. Citing his U.N. reform report, "In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All", which will top the agenda of the world summit in September, Annan added: "I hope the world summit will provide impetus to this goal."

The weeklong biennial review conference on the Programme of Action comes just after the end of a meeting of the "Open-ended Working Group", which is drafting the binding instrument to enable governments to identify, trace and stop the movement of illicit small arms and light weapons around the world.

According to an expert report submitted to the U.N. General Assembly two years ago, governments recognised that the ability to trace illegal weapons and identify their origin was the key element to successful implementation of the Programme of Action.

However, activists are left wondering if the official delegates will listen to their call for a legally-binding agreement to stem the illegal gun trade.

"It is unacceptable that four years after the agreement, so little concrete progress has been made," said Eavis. "While governments have been stalling, hundreds of thousands of people have died. They must take urgent action to address this tragedy."