Officials discuss strategy to control small arms

Some 100 officials from 39 African countries started a five-day meeting in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, on Monday to discuss the threat that small arms pose to human security and development across the continent.

"Africa has been ravaged by many conflicts. Most of these conflicts were fought primarily using small arms and light weapons that pose one of the greatest challenge of our time," Ugandan Interior Minister Ruhakana Rugunda said in a speech he read on behalf of President Yoweri Museveni.

According to Rugunda, more than 20 percent of sub-Sahara's population had been directly affected by civil wars during the 1990s. He said conflicts in Angola, Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda had claimed the lives of millions of innocent civilians.

Conflicts across the continent had also destroyed the livelihoods of tens of millions, he said, quoting the 2000 UN Development Programme Human Development Index, which showed that 20 out of the 34 lowest-ranking countries had been severely affected by conflicts.

"In Africa at least 22 countries experienced civil strife and 11 were convulsed by violent political crisis during the year 2002," Rugunda said. He noted that all 31 OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries and the 113 countries in the medium development categories had not been affected by war.

"These observations indicate a strong link between small arms, violence and poverty. Armed violence carried out primarily with small arms is a major contributing factor that has led to increasing poverty and human misery. Poverty and suffering, in turn, threaten human security and development," Rugunda said, drawing lessons from the Ugandan conflict which pits the army against the rebel Lord's Resistance Army in the north, and has displaced 1.6 million people.

He urged the meeting, which is being held under the theme "Security Challenges of Small Arms and Light Weapons Proliferation in Africa", to help states change and improve the way they "export, procure, distribute, control, use and store small arms and light weapons."

Participants at the meeting include civilian, security and military officers from across Africa, key leaders from civil society, international experts, and European and American government officials who will discuss the challenges small arms and light weapons pose to African peace and security.

"Comprehensive strategies involving governments and the civil society at national and international levels are required in order to find a sustainable solution," Rugunda said, noting that during war it was difficult to maintain control over firearms.

Ugandan officials said Uganda was struggling to control small arms in the northeast, where the customary practice of cattle-rustling, previously conducted on a limited scale with simple weapons such as spears, had escalated into devastating and large-scale armed violence due to the presence of small arms. Uganda has so far recovered more than 10,000 firearms in a disarmament exercise that started a few years ago.

A Tanzanian police officer, Dominic Hayuma, told the seminar in a keynote address that the continent would try to negotiate an acceptance of control measures with countries manufacturing the arms. He said the weapons should be marked so that they could be tracked.