Concord Times (Freetown)
Mohamed Massaquoi
22 June 2009
Freetown — Policy makers, including members of parliament, representatives from various ministries of government, the military, police and civil society organizations Wednesday discussed the arms trade treaty as bedrock to the maintenance of peace and stability in the country.
The roundtable conference was organized by the Sierra Leone Network on Small Arms, SLANSA as part of this year's global week of action in raising awareness campaign for better gun laws and push for strong regulations on global arms trade.
Giving an overview of the conference, SLANSA's national coordinator Florelly Hazily said the conference targeted stakeholders to extensively discuss the issue of small arms and to make necessary input for the benefit of the people of Sierra Leone.
She said her organization has joined eighty countries across the world to raise awareness on this very important issue as gun violence affects both rich countries as well as those emerging from conflict situations.
Hazily said over 150 countries, including Sierra Leone, voted the arms trade treaty, ATT because a lot of people have suffered and development hampered through arms conflict.
"We need to add our voice to the campaign that is the reason we have called on you so that the information can reach the appropriate authorities. We have realized that government was not properly responding to this issue. We therefore call on government to fast-track the arms and ammunition and explosive act and to establish a national commission on small arms," she said adding that gun violence affects people's lives which is why communities have demand policies to put an end to these problems.
SLANSA's programme officer Abu-Bakarr Sheriff reiterated the need for the enforcement of the arms trade treaty in any post conflict country.
He said Sierra Leone had had such experience during the war in which properties were destroyed and people lost their lives.
Sheriff noted that the only way to address issues of small arms is to have a treaty that regulates their movement into Africa and other parts of the world
"During the war in Sierra Leone, even though the UN placed an embargo on the importation of arms, people still used wrong users' certificates to trade in arms. We need to have the ATT to harmonize our common standard and to have a workable mechanism for the applications of this certificate," he said and urged government to make it a point of duty to strengthen the arms trade treaty.
Hon. Kes Boyer of the Sierra Leone Peoples Party emphasized that it was the responsibility of government to take the issue seriously, because every member of society was yearning for peace and stability.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Concord Times. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
