Military

DATE=7/13/01

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=PENTAGON / SMALL ARMS (L ONLY)

NUMBER=2-278191

BYLINE=ALEX BELIDA

DATELINE=PENTAGON

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: As the headquarters of a military operation that spans the globe, the Pentagon might be expected to watch closely the U-N conference on the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons that began this past week (Monday 7/9). But V-O-A Pentagon Correspondent Alex Belida reports he has found otherwise.

TEXT: Ask Pentagon officials about the perils of proliferation and they will almost always focus on such large-scale threats as missiles, bombers, and submarines, or nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons.

But when it comes to the proliferation of small arms and light weapons - automatic rifles, machine guns, mortars, and the like - the Pentagon appears to draw a blank.

Rear Admiral Craig Quigley is the Pentagon spokesman. This is what he said when asked about the position taken by U-S defense officials ahead of the United Nations conference that began this week in New York on the illicit trade in small arms.

/// QUIGLEY ACTUALITY ///

It's just an issue we have not been involved in on the world stage and I am not aware of the Department of Defense having a policy position in that regard.

/// END ACTUALITY ///

Aides to the spokesman later told V-O-A the Pentagon's top expert on small arms questions was a relatively low-ranking officer who was out of the building and possibly on vacation.

In fact, V-O-A subsequently established the officer was a listed member of the U-S delegation at the U-N conference in New York, one of seven Pentagon representatives.

But the group included only one other military officer -- again relatively low-ranking. The five member civilian contingent included three individuals with less than imposing defense positions: an intern, a policy fellow, and a research analyst.

Despite the apparent lack of serious interest, Pentagon officials acknowledge privately that U-S military personnel are probably in greater danger worldwide from small arms like the A-K-47 assault rifle than they are from a ballistic missile attack.

The private Small Arms Survey group estimates that one-half-million people die each year at the hands of small arms. It calls them "the real weapons of mass destruction" and says they "exacerbate conflicts, cause much human suffering, and undermine economic development across the globe."

The United States is considered the world's largest exporter of small arms with recent annual sales of over one-point-two-billion dollars.

But U-S officials are quick to point out all such sales take place under strict controls.

Nevertheless, the United States has come under criticism at the small arms conference for saying it will not support various ideas - including measures to restrict the legal trade and manufacture of light weapons, measures to bar civilian possession of small arms, or moves to limit the trade in small arms to governments only. (Signed)

NEB/BEL/JWH