Widespread small arms continue to cause concern

The widespread availability of small arms among Angolan civilians could pose a threat to holding peaceful national elections, tentatively scheduled for 2005, a senior opposition UNITA official said on Tuesday. "We welcome the government's attempts to remove weapons from the hands of those who may be intent on destabilising the country during the elections, but we have also asked that this process be speeded up. As long as civilians, especially [ruling party] MPLA militants, continue to have these light weapons in their hands, the people of Angola will remain psychologically insecure," UNITA secretary for foreign affairs, Alcides Sakala, told IRIN. Speaking on Monday to Angop, the state news agency, Home Affairs Minister Osvaldo de Jesus Serra Van-dunem said the government would enact a "Weapons Ownership and Disarming of Civilians Act", aimed at removing guns from circulation. Serra Van-dunem noted that following the end of three decades of civil war in April 2002, "there is no need for arms for self-defence". Although there is no independent confirmation of exactly how many guns are in the hands of individuals, officials estimate that a third of Angolans are armed. During the lead-up to the 1992 election in particular, Sakala emphasised, the government had armed its supporters in key towns after accusing UNITA of not properly demobilising its troops. "Most of the clashes in and around [the capital] Luanda between UNITA and the MPLA were fought using the same guns the government gave to its supporters. Those guns are still in circulation and can be used to intimidate and harass civilians during the election," Sakala added. The possible trafficking of guns across Angola's borders was also causing concern. A senior researcher at the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies, Noel Stott, said Namibia had already raised the alarm over the increase in light weapons filtering from Angola. "It is still unclear just how many weapons are in circulation, but it can be safely assumed that, given the duration of the conflict, there should be a huge quantity. This then leads to fears of cross-border trade in weapons, which Angolan authorities have yet to address," Stott said. He added that Angola was not a signatory to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) protocol on controlling the flow of small arms in the region. "By becoming part of the protocol it would facilitate not only Angola's attempts, but the efforts of regional governments to harmonise legislation on weapons ownership. But then this would mean that Angola would have to reconsider its firearm legislation, which could take time," Stott said. Following last year's ceasefire agreement, a government programme encouraging civilians to hand in their weapons yielded less than 10 percent of the number believed to be in circulation. Stoot said one of the reasons for the apparent disinterest could be that civilians were awaiting a "cash or food" incentive from government before deciding to hand in their weapons. Angola 2000, a local NGO, has argued that the government's disarmament programme should seek to involve local communities. "It is a huge task to get people to hand in their weapons, especially since there still is a deep feeling of insecurity among Angolans. The government must recognise that the issuing of authoritative messages will not solve the problem. Police raids on homes does not work and the government knows this. It is important that people understand the dangers to themselves, and their communities, of possessing and using illicit weapons. Our research has shown that people will best understand this message if ordinary people within their communities convey this message convincingly," Angola 2000 vice president, Matis Capapelo, told IRIN. UNITA meanwhile denied that any of its supporters were in possession of light weapons, arguing that the former rebel group handed in its armoury after signing the peace deal.