Experts examine ways to curb proliferation of small arms

Experts from African nations this week urged their governments and regional institutions to establish mechanisms to step up the fight against the proliferation of small arms in Africa. The call came in a declaration drafted at a conference held on 27-29 November in Bamako, Mali, Napoleon Abdulai of the Lome-based Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa told IRIN on Thursday. Some 500 experts from Organisation of African Unity (OAU) members states, the United Nations, non-governmental organisations and research institutions attended the meeting. The draft declaration on a common African position on the illegal proliferation, circulation and trafficking of small arms and light weapons comes up for adoption at a two-day OAU ministerial meeting that began on Thursday in the Malian capital. The experts called on OAU member states to establish national and regional coordination agencies and appropriate institutional infrastructure for guiding policy and research on the proliferation and trafficking of small arms and light weapons, Abdulai said. Such bodies would help to guide and coordinate efforts to monitor, control and reduce the proliferation of and illicit trade in such weapons, he added. The draft declaration further includes a call for the prompt adoption of legislation that makes the illegal manufacture, trafficking, possession and use of small arms and light weapons criminal offences under national law, the disarmament expert told IRIN. Greater efforts need to be made to encourage people to surrender illicit light weapons in Africa and to develop public awareness on the proliferation of small arms and the problems it poses, the draft declaration stated. At the regional level, laws governing the manufacture, trading, possession and use of small arms and light weapons need to be codified and harmonised, the experts noted. There are some 100 million small arms and light weapons in Africa, Abdulai said. About eight million are in West Africa. The continent’s common position will be presented at a UN conference on the proliferation of small arms that is to be held in mid-2001.