Washington, D.C. — Small arms and light weapons are a "growing emergency", former French Prime Minister Michael Rocard warned Monday.
He and Mali president Alpha Oumar Konare co-chair an international "eminent persons group" that includes former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara, Georgia president Eduard Shevardnadze, and OAU Secretary-General Salim Ahmed Salim.
The group, which is seeking to reduce the worldwide traffic of small arms, held a news briefing in Washington, D.C. which included a live telephone conference with Rocard in France.
About 2 million children have been killed and 4 to 5 million have been disabled as a result of wars and armed conflict, Rocard said. "These weapons must be brought under control."
About 200,000 persons are killed by small arms each year. Some 500 million small arms are believed to be in circulation worldwide; most are not regulated. Most small arms originate in industrialized nations; most victims are in the developing nations of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Africa's conflicts alone have caused an estimated 7-8 million fatalities, the group says.
The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) is expected to approve a narrowly focused document on small arms at its upcoming Ministerial meeting in Vienna.
What's needed, the group argues, is agreement on how to regulate the legal trade in weapons, "but parochial big power interests impede the process," Rocard said.
Embracing UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's "name and shame" approach to getting movement on the control of small arms, he added: "At issue are efforts by the U.S., Russia, China, Egypt, Algeria, India, Israel to narrow the conference scope to illicit traffic." Half of legally-traded weapons wind up on in the illegal market, "so such efforts are intellectually dishonest," said Rocard.
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A variety of domestic concerns ranging from U.S. opponents of gun control, PLA control of the industry in China to Russia's need for foreign exchange explain the resistance to deliberations about legal weapons.
Furthermore, small arms control is barely on the political map, the group acknowledges.
"There's lack of attention, lack of focus," said Thomas Graham, former Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons chief negotiator for the U.S. and another member of the group. "I don't recall any speech by any Clinton Administration official on this subject. I don't even recall a mention by a major Administration official."
It is hoped that a stronger stance on the issue will come out of the Organization of African Unity Ministerial Conference set for Bamako, Mali next month. But so far, Algeria and Egypt have successfully blocked any deliberations that go beyond illegal weapons traffiking. The stance of these two nations runs against the Ministerial Conference preparatory meeting in May, which called for transparency and accountability in small arms production, weapons registeries, and an international code of conduct.
The issue is likely to be high on the agenda says, Dr. Sola Ogunbanwo, Nigeria's Representative to the United Nations General Assembly and also a member of the group. "Consensus must not be reached at the smallest common denominator, just to placate one member State at the expense of the rest of the Continent."
