08 July 2003
U.N. Reviewing Effort to End Illicit Small Arms Trafficking
(U.S. has helped destroy over 400,000 small arms in two years) (1240)
By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent
United Nations -- The first meeting to review progress and exchange
information on ending the illicit trade in small arms and light
weapons opened at U.N. headquarters July 7, two years after an
international conference adopted a plan of action to eliminate the
weapons that are responsible for more than 1,000 deaths a day.
The meeting, which will end on July 11, is the first opportunity for
nations to discuss what has been implemented in the Program of Action
to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and
Light Weapons. The program was adopted two years ago at the U.N.
Conference on the illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All
Its Aspects. The program of action identified national, regional and
global measures -- such as legislation, stockpile management and
destruction, identification and tracing of illicit arms, and
international cooperation and public awareness campaigns -- that can
be taken by governments, international organizations, and
nongovernmental groups.
"It is difficult to overstate the importance of implementation of the
program of action," U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a
message to the meeting. "After all, small arms and light weapons cause
mass destruction. They kill about 60 people an hour or a half a
million people a year, 90 percent of them women and children."
"Less quantifiable, but no less palpable, are the wider consequences
of small arms proliferation in terms of conflicts fuelled,
peacekeepers threatened, aid denied, respect for law undermined, and
development stunted," the secretary general said. "They are truly a
global scourge."
The U.N. defines small arms as those that can be fired, maintained and
transported by one person. Light weapons are ones used by a small crew
and transported on a light vehicle or pack animal. There are more then
500 million small arms and light weapons around the world and between
40 and 60 percent of those are illicit, the U.N. estimates. Of the 49
major conflicts fought during the 1990s, small arms were used in 47 of
them, causing 4 million deaths.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs
Lincoln Bloomfield said July 7 that the United States' most
significant contribution to the program of action so far has been in
the area of destruction assistance programs.
Since early 2001 the United States has supported programs in 10
countries that have destroyed over 400,000 excess illegal small arms
or light weapons and 44 million rounds of ammunition. The vast
majority of the illicit weapons were not newly manufactured but left
over from the Cold War, when large weapons stockpiles were common in
many communist countries, Bloomfield said.
"Our study of this issue has found that so many of these weapons
really originated and were stockpiled by the former communist empire
and are far in excess of any legitimate needs of the countries where
they now exist," he said. "So it falls to the international community
to work together constructively to help these countries in need deal
with the burden of these small arms that are hard to secure in large
quantities."
"Destruction of these weapons, therefore, represents progress -- it
takes them out of circulation for good, where they will never fall
into the hands of terrorists, criminals, or warlords, or kill innocent
civilians," the assistant secretary said.
Achieving progress in curbing small arms trafficking, Bloomfield said,
"will require addressing many factors underlying the illicit trade in
small arms and light weapons worldwide. This activity persists because
of lax enforcement of laws and regulations or their absence
altogether. It occurs because of poor governance and an environment
that tolerates illegal commerce, often involving corruption among
government officials."
"These are symptoms of a wider pathology undermining stability in
parts of the developing world, and until we mount a sufficient
collective effort to address the contributing factors comprehensively,
we are likely to face challenges from the illicit small arms and light
weapons trade," the assistant secretary said.
"We must all work even more energetically to curb the illicit trade in
small arms and light weapons," Bloomfield said. "I sincerely hope one
key outcome of our endeavors this week will be a redoubled commitment
to that task. And you will find the United States ready to engage in
very practical ways to reduce the terrible costs being exacted by
these illicit weapons of local destruction."
Talking with journalists after his speech, Bloomfield pointed out that
the United States has been active both bilaterally and multilaterally,
working on regional capacity-building programs as well as weapons
destruction. There is strong support in the U.S. Congress for
continuing the destruction program and for helping countries improve
their export controls, Bloomfield added.
Since July 2001, U.S. assistance programs have included an action plan
for curbing illicit arms trafficking for the countries of southern
Africa and export control and border security programs in over 30
countries.
"The fact that we are working with countries around the world to
prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction or the movement of
terrorist groups also adds to the focus of controlling borders and
controlling illicit activities" in other areas, he said.
"We are making some progress, but clearly there are areas of crisis
where small arms and light weapons are illegally exported and
re-exported; they're fraudulently sold; they are corruptly imported
and they contribute to instability in areas that are beset by crisis."
The United States is "second to none" in the sophistication of its
arms transfer licensing, Bloomfield pointed out.
In the last two years the United States has been transforming its own
system, in order to make it fully electronic and to join domestic
agencies with the State Department and the Pentagon. This is being
done to make sure the databases are instantly recallable, and "to make
sure that the American people can take satisfaction that whatever
these weapons flows are that are flowing into our own hemisphere, or
Africa, or the Great Lakes region, or the Balkans, they are not coming
from the United States," Bloomfield said.
"We are very interested in talking to countries that produce weapons
and export them without a very strong concern about where the weapons
are ending up, so that we can urge them to stop exporting them or
adopt robust marking, tracing, and export controls such as the United
States has," he said.
The United States has been working very closely with a number of
countries, including heads of state, urging them to destroy weapons
and secure weapons with U.S. help and financial assistance, Bloomfield
said. "We are working with countries to bolster their law enforcement
capabilities, their export regimes [and] their export control
capacity, as are many other governments," he said.
Bloomfield also said that, as was the case at the initial conference
two years ago, the United States will discuss only illicit small arms
and light weapons, not lawful gun ownership or legal trade and
manufacturing of those weapons. "We all have more than enough worthy
work to do within the terms of the (illicit small arms and light
weapons) mandate. For it is difficult to exaggerate the impact of
illicit flows of small arms and light weapons in troubled places."
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
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