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East Africa: We Will Trace Origins of All Small Arms in Region, Says Agency

Charles Kazooba

23 August 2008

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Nairobi — All firearms imports into the Great Lakes Region will have to be vetted to determine their origin and destination.

The Regional Centre on Small Arms, which now enjoys observer status at the UN, says suppliers of arms into the region will also be gazetted and the countries procuring the weapons obliged to notify the centre to eliminate gunrunning.

The centre, funded by Western countries among them the UK and US, is an institution created following the Nairobi Declaration to co-ordinate efforts of member states to prevent, combat and eradicate stockpiling and illicit trafficking in small arms and light weapons in the Great Lakes Region and Horn of Africa.

At a conference in Kampala last week, the centre's executive secretary Francis Sang announced a deadline for all the 12 partner states to have branded their firearms.

It says it is taking measures to curb the illicit sale of firearms in the region to reduce unwarranted conflicts that have left millions dead, others displaced, property destroyed and gross human rights abuse.

"If a firearm is found in a country it should be traced back to its origin. The issue of small arms must be addressed in a more holistic approach," said Mr Sang. Mr Sang warned that the unchecked supply of illicit arms in the area is conducive for military coups. "Such arms provide an environment for conflict," he said.

The centre is pushing for legislation to be harmonised among member states. "Gunrunners will leave countries with weak legislation," said Mr Sang. "The aspect of good governance should be looked into very critically," he added.

The centre has met members of parliament from the Great Lakes to sell a legal framework on the manufacture, use and transfer of illegal arms to curb their proliferation.

Mr Sang said the centre has a long term strategy to encourage economic empowerment and good governance in the region and also reduce corruption, which fuels sale of illegal arms. "The economic conditions too need to be improved to reduce the demand for illegal arms," he said.

Mr Sang, a retired Kenyan police officer, said the centre will generate guidelines different from those of the UN, to address the local situation in the Great Lakes.

So far the centre has procured electronic arms-marking machines for member states that committed to marking all weapons in their possession by this December. Rwanda, for example, has started marking its arms manually, and to date, 8,000 arms have been marked.

The small arms centre is currently involved in efforts to have an Arms Trade Treaty, that will establish common international standards for the import, export and transfer of convention arms binding to all UN member states, in line with the provisions of the Nairobi Protocol.

The UN estimates that more than 600 million small arms and light weapons are in circulation worldwide. These are believed to originate from illicit trade, leftover from conflicts and stolen from military and police armories. Small arms are responsible for more than half a million deaths annually, including 300,000 in armed conflict and 200,000 more from homicides and suicides.

Despite peace agreements in 2003 and a UN arms embargo initially imposed in July 2003, weapons and munitions, including US-made ones, continue to reach armed groups known for flagrant human-rights abuses in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

In May 2004, for example according to Amnesty International US, dissident elements of the armed group RCD-Goma killed more than 60 people and raped more than 100 women and girls in South Kivu, eastern DRC.

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