Rights group takes issue with UN small arms conference

The human rights organisation, Amnesty International (AI), has questioned some of the aspects of an international conference on illicit trade in small arms, convened by the UN, which opened in New York on Tuesday. In a lengthy report, AI welcomed the initiative, but said the UN draft programme of action which will be presented to the conference “does not even mention some of the key contexts in which small arms are used to cause suffering on a massive scale”. “Small arms are now the principal weapons used in most armed conflicts characterised by mass human rights abuses by government and opposition forces,” the organisation noted, saying that such weapons were easily available because of the poor regulation of supply.

It expressed concern that the draft action programme “excludes one of the most important aspects of illegality - namely the violation of international human rights law and international humanitarian law using small arms”. The report noted that thousands of civilians had been killed by various sides in conflicts in the Great Lakes region. In countries such as Burundi and the DRC, there had been extra-judicial killings, torture and tens of thousands of civilians were internally displaced as a result of the conflicts.

In Rwanda, the report said, arbitrary arrests and “disappearances” continued. AI called for transparency, accountability, the closing of loopholes and international assistance in order to stem the traffic in illegal small arms and light weapons. [Full report available at http://www.amnesty.org/]