Fight small arms together, Security Council urges states

The UN Security Council on Tuesday urged West African countries to strengthen cooperation to counter subregional threats to peace, posed by small arms trafficking and mercenary activity within their countries, the UN reported. At a public meeting presided over by Guinea, the Council unanimously adopted a declaration on the proliferation of small arms and mercenary activities in West Africa. It recommended that West African States broaden a small arms moratorium the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) approved in 1998 to include an arms information exchange mechanism and the creation of a register of holders of such weapons. Speaking at the meeting, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the international community to help stop mercenary activity, which drives the uncontrolled spread of small arms in West Africa. The unrestrained proliferation of small arms and light weapons and the use of mercenaries sustains conflict, exacerbates violence and fuels crime and terrorism, he said. "The easy availability of small arms and light weapons is strongly linked to the dramatic rise in the victimization of women and children and with the phenomenon of child soldiers," Annan said. "Light automatic weapons can be carried and fired by children as young as nine or ten years-old. Unless adequately addressed, the proliferation of small arms and mercenaries would continue to pose a severe threat to the region's hopes of attaining durable peace and security." More than 25 speakers addressed the meeting. They included Said Djinnit, Interim Commissioner for Peace, Security and Political Affairs of the African Union; Nana Effah-Apenteng, a representative of the chairman of ECOWAS; Mohamed Ibn Chambas, Executive Secretary of ECOWAS; and Ibrahima Sall, Regional Director of the Programme for Coordination and Assistance for Security and Development (PCASED). [PCASED, which is based in Bamako, Mali, assists ECOWAS states in taking steps to ensure that weapons do not cross their borders, to diminish the demand for weapons, develop legal and regulatory measures relating to weapons possession and transfers, and encourage transparency and accountability in the police and military sectors.] Chambas said West African leaders had initiated the "security first" approach to ending conflicts which led to the adoption of the Moratorium on the Import, Export and Manufacture of Light Weapons in 1998. Senegal's Foreign Minister, Cheick Tidiane Gadio, expressed concern over the eruption of mercenary movements, the increased appetite for certain natural resources, domestic social and political chasms, and transborder conflicts. A backgrounder prepared by the Council president reported that the proliferation of small arms and light weapons and the phenomenon of mercenaries posed complex challenges to West Africa, involving security, humanitarian and development dimensions. It said an estimated eight million illicit small arms were in circulation in the subregion. Details of the Council deliberations and the resolution are available at: www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/vWN