Ismail-Musa Ladu
5 November 2007
Kampala — CIVILIANS carry 65 per cent of the fire arms in Uganda, a senior official of the Uganda Joint Christian Council has said.
Canon Joyce Nima made the remarks last week while delivering a paper at a seminar on small arms in Kampala.
"Among those with arms are the militias yet they are not supposed to have guns at all because they are civilians," she said. The seminar, that mainly targeted media practitioners, was organised by the East African Community (EAC) and the Uganda Action Network on Small Arms.
Ms Nima argued that each time there was a change of government members of the armed forces in the toppled regime go away with the guns that always end up in civilian hands.
"All the security persons in past governments have always gone with arms and there has been no mechanism to document the process," she said.
Uganda has seen three violent changes in government namely in 1979 when Idi Amin toppled Obote, the 1985 coup of the Okellos and the Museveni takeover in 1986.
"In the whole world up to 80 per cent of the arms are in the hands of civilians and 20 per cent in hands of the armed forces," Ms Nima said.
"Arms trade is an international problem that affects many lives and it is our duty to stand up and fight arms proliferation". Ms Nima said arms proliferation, especially at the borders, affects peace and security in the region and underscored the importance of the media in checking the practice.
She said the German government has greed to fund a project on controlling the proliferation of small arms and light weapons for three years.
Mr Richard Mugisha, the chairman of the Action Network on Small Arms said the German funded project would strengthen capacity in EAC to control the proliferation of small arms in the region.
He said the project would ensure the harmonisation of national laws, regulations and administrative procedures relating to proliferation of arms in the region.
However, the publicist of the Uganda National Focal Point on Small Arms, Mr Joe Bruwa, denied the claims that 60 per cent of arms are with civilians. He admitted though that there were illegal arms in circulation.
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At some point in this article, it is erroneously stated that in 1979 Idi Amin toppled Milton Obote. In April of that year, it is Idi Amin who was toppled by Ugandan exiles together with Tanzanian forces and others.