DISARMAMENT: U.N.Seeks Database on Ammunition and Explosives

By Thalif Deen Reprint | | Print |

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Jul 27 1999 (IPS) - Arms experts, commissioned by the United Nations, have recommended the world body sets up an international database to gather information worldwide on ammunition and explosives.

The proposed database eventually would be linked on a regional and international level and be part of an exercise in transparency, aimed at curbing the flow of small arms to war zones.

The eight-member group of experts argued that small arms could be made ineffective if weapons users were cut off from ammunition supplies.

“Measures to control small arms and light weapons would not be complete if they did not include ammunition and explosives,” they said in a report.

Ammunition and explosives formed “an inseparable part” of the problem of excessive accumulation, and the transfer and misuse of small arms and light weapons, the experts said.

The group also pointed out that one of the “major impediments” against arms proliferation was the “insufficiency and unavailability” of information on ammunition and explosives.

Existing information was both fragmentary and often contradictory even on such elementary data as locations and production facilities, and the direction and volumes of international trade in ammunition.

In their 19-page report, the experts said they had very little information on the extent of ammunition stocks, legitimately held by armed and security forces, and on the extent of surplus and obsolete stocks.

The stockpile of conventional ammunition in the United States, for example, has been estimated to be worth more than 80 billion dollars, of which 31 billion dollars has been considered “excess”, according to the Washington-based General Accounting Office (GAO). The sale of firearms was regulated in the United States but not ammunition sales.

The expert group, chaired by Silvia Cucovaz de Arroche, the director of foreign intelligence in Argentina, pointed out that the types of ammunition most commonly encountered in conflict areas were small arms ammunition – specifically for use in pistols, rifles and machine guns.

The report recommended the creation of regional arms registers on ammunition and explosives, and the expansion of the existing US Arms Register to include small arms and light weapons. Currently, the Register records only fighter aircraft, helicopters, missiles, warships, military vehicles and heavy artillery.

The experts also called for the adoption of a common minimum standard for marking ammunition and explosives to make it easier to trace the source of these weapons.

“Agreement on minimal international standards for marking would greatly enhance transparency by facilitating the identification and tracing of ammunition and explosives illegally used or trafficked,” the report said.

The group pointed to the widespread use of explosive devices as weapons by extreme political groups, terrorists, criminals and disaffected individuals, as well as parties to conflict situations.

“It is difficult to obtain reliable and comprehensive conclusions from existing data on worldwide bomb incidents, since many countries regard such information as security-sensitive,” it said.

All available information, however, indicated that the reduction of armed forces in the post-Cold War era had contributed to the existence of very large stockpiles of ammunition for small arms and light weapons.

This trend had been strengthened by the change to small calibre assault rifles (from 7.62mm to 5.56mm) in several major armies of the world.

“While the resulting stockpiles cannot be quantified, their careful management, and their reduction where appropriate, are considered especially important,” the experts said.

The United Nations said last week that, while the ability to manufacture major weapons is limited to a fairly small number of industrial countries, the production of small arms is more widespread.

In 1994, close to 300 companies in 52 countries were manufacturing small arms and light weapons: a 25 percent increase in the number of such countries since the mid-1980s.

The leading suppliers for the period 1993-1997 were the United States, Russia, Britain, France, Germany and China.

The 15-member European Union and the United States together accounted for 80 percent of the global arms trade. At least 22 developing nations were producing small arms and 16 nations also were exporting them.

The United Nations also noted that insurgent and opposition groups in several nations had the capability to produce simple, small-calibre weapons. Many countries had developed production capacity well beyond the needs of their own armed forces and therefore were seeking export markets.