Rwanda News Agency/Agence Rwandaise d'Information (Kigali)
20 July 2007
Nairobi — Kenyan authorities have blamed proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons in Eastern Africa on weak legislations and called for tougher action to regulate the flow of the deadly weapons, RNA reports.
Kenya Attorney-General Amos Wako told a regional arms meet Thursday that the proliferation of deadly weapons, which is rampant in Africa, fuel conflicts and hinders development by creating an environment of fear and insecurity.
In April 2004, 11 countries from the Great Lakes region and the Horn of Africa region signed an agreement in Kenya to combat illicit manufacturing, trafficking and use of small arms in the sub region.
The states that signed the declaration called for the destruction and disposal of these weapons.
The Nairobi Protocol which was signed in 2004 obliges signatories -- Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Seychelles, Sudan, Somalia, Uganda and Tanzania -- to take concrete action, including passing legislation, to back up earlier more abstract pledges.
Mr. Wako said Kenya which is an "oasis of peace" in the region but has "suffered greatly from an astronomical proliferation" of illicit weapons even with enhanced surveillance along its borders with neighboring countries ravaged by civil wars and strife.
"Kenya will be contributing directly to the enforcement of measures aimed at controlling the availability and use of small arms and light weapons in the country," the Chinese Xinhua News Agency quotes him as saying.
He called on governments and civil society to work proactively and effectively together to address the problem of arms at each level -- stemming the source of the supply, and addressing the root causes of why people possess arms in insecurity environments.
"Innovative and effective ways must be found to control and restrict the flow of small arms and light weapons to ensure that these destructive weapons do not fall into the wrong hands and do not worsen potential or ongoing conflicts," he added.
Mr. Wako said global action needs to be directed at the nature of flows of these weapons and not on the weapons themselves. Sub-Saharan Africa alone is reported to have close to 30 million weapons in circulation, the vast majority of which are in private hands.
A proliferation of machine guns, rifles, grenades, pistols and other small arms has caused the deaths of millions of civilians in Africa and the displacement of millions more.
A senior official with the regional arms control body told RNA in June that up to 100,000 small arms had been destroyed in this region since 2003. In Rwanda, estimates put the decommissioning at 6000. The body however points to difficulty in establishing the number of arms that have entered the region in 2006 to present.
Delegates from the member countries were in Kigali mid-June for consultations on progress of implementation of previous agreements.
A report by the body said because of the Rwandan porous borders that lacked strict controls, it will be challenging to control the entry of illegal arms. On Burundi, the report said continued violence had rendered disarmament impossible especially in the area still controlled by the remaining rebel group Forces Nationales de la Liberation (FNL).
Somalia remains the hot-bed for proliferation of arms as war has raged on uncontrolled for over a decade. Among all the regional partners, Tanzania stands out with a commendable record in keeping arms out of the rich of its people thanks to no war and massive sensitization programs.
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