Museveni urges Africa to focus on demand for small arms

A conference exploring the evolving dynamics of small arms as the most pressing security challenge in Africa, ended on Friday with the Ugandan leader, Yoweri Museveni, calling on governments to address the causes of their use and proliferation. "We need to address causes of the conflicts in Africa in which small arms are used because small arms will not find a market if there were no unresolved issues in our midst," Museveni said at the closing ceremony of the five-day international seminar. "We cannot address the problems without addressing the causes," he added, listing five reasons why people have resorted to arms as a solution. He listed undemocratic governance on the continent, oppression of certain groups, atrocities committed on the continent with impunity, underdevelopment and ordinary crimes, as the main issues generating demand for small arms. According to Stephen Emerson, a professor of security studies at the African Centre for Strategic Studies, a survey has estimated that there up to 30 million small arms and light weapons in Africa, with only 21 percent of them in government hands. Museveni said that historical distortions of country-to-country boundaries created demand for small arms to solve problems and consequently, affect the populations of the continent. "At Sudan’s independence, the question remained what should be ‘Sudan’ – an Afro-Arab country or an Arab country? The political leadership failed to offer answers to this question and the AK-47 was resorted to as the answer," Museveni said, referring to the Sudanese divide between the Arab Muslims in the north and African Christians in the south. Museveni, who repeatedly cited a statistic that more than 20 percent of sub-Sahara's population had been directly affected by civil wars during the 1990s, called attention to the demand for arms. He said that manufacturers should be enlisted to help fight the illicit arms trade. "The issue of small arms is of great importance to all of us because these arms have killed generations and maimed thousands of people," he said. "They have raised the number of refugees and Africa is greatly in need of a solution and I hope we shall find a solution." The UN definition of small arms and light weapons includes revolvers and self-loading pistols, rifles and carbines, assault rifles, submachine guns and light and heavy machine guns, as well as hand-held under-barrel and mounted grenade launchers, portable anti-tank and anti-aircraft guns, recoilless rifles, portable launchers of anti-tanks and anti-aircraft missile systems and mortars less than 100 mm in caliber. Emerson said the meeting analysed the Demobilisation, Disarmament and Resettlement programmes on the continent as common areas that have not been properly handled. The meeting debated how to convince the international community and aid agencies to fund post-conflict development projects that also involve former combatants. "Many reports have pointed to more violence and more crime because arms are left in the hands of the communities," he said. According to Emerson, the problem would be handled through a multiple-layer approach involving regional and continental legislation to control government stockpiles, while on the international level manufacturers and brokers of these weapons will be targeted, including ten countries in Africa that manufacture guns and ammunitions. "There are too many paramilitary groups in Africa and governments need to control them," he said.