Focus on small arms

Although southern African countries have agreed on a comprehensive protocol on controlling the flow of small arms in the region, its implementation could be far more problematic, security analysts told IRIN. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) protocol agreed by foreign ministers last week seeks to harmonise legislation on weapons ownership, and the regulation of the import and export of small arms. It will be presented to heads of state at next month's SADC summit in Malawi, but can only come into effect when the protocol is promulgated by national parliaments. That, analysts say, is the rub. "It's a very good protocol, definitely a step forward, but from signature it needs to be promulgated and there is the issue of the political will in SADC," Institute of Security Studies researcher Jakkie Potgieter told IRIN. While countries like South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique and Namibia have been at the forefront of the reform process, others with antiquated colonial-era laws on arms control are going to face a far tougher time in applying the protocol. "In countries like Zambia and Malawi, it is not an issue of adding two or three clauses but rewriting the whole firearms legislation," Potgieter said. The United Nations has been discussing this week the scourge of the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons. Outlining the extent of the global problem, Secretary-General Kofi Annan explained that when illegal weapons fall into the hands of "terrorists, criminals and irregular forces, small arms bring devastation. They exacerbate conflict, spark refugee flows, undermine the rule of law, and spawn a culture of violence and impunity. In short, small arms are a threat to peace and development, to democracy and human rights." He added that "small arms are easy to buy: in some places, an AK-47 assault rifle can be bought for as little as US $15, or even for a bag of grain. They are easy to use: with minimal training, even a child can wield one. They are easy to conceal and transport. Since they require little maintenance, they can last for decades ... According to the independent Small Arms Survey 2001, small arms are implicated in well over 1,000 deaths every single day, the vast majority of them women and children". Capacity problem Africa has, notably through the OAU's Bamako Declaration, attempted to formally address the issue of illegal small arms. SADC is also in a collaborative process with the European Union to help address the problem. But for much of Africa, outdated legislation, the lack of capacity to effectively monitor trafficking, continued conflicts and porous borders, limit the ability of countries to get on top of the problem. "Given the difficulties of governance in the region, it is so much more difficult to control and regulate the flow of arms," Guni Govindjee, spokesperson for Ceasefire, a Johannesburg-based demilitarisation lobby group told IRIN. "To control the flow of weapons you need strong mechanisms in place and there is a capacity problem ... It is also clear that some countries in the region see it as less of a problem than others, but it is a burning issue that needs to be addressed." The 26-year civil war in Angola, Africa's longest running conflict, poses particular problems for the control of illegal weapons. UN sanctions on arms and fuel supplies to the rebel movement UNITA have been in place since 1993. But weapons originating mainly in Eastern Europe continue to reach Jonas Savimbi's rebels - albeit now at a reduced rate - via brokers in the region. "We have a very strange situation where all SADC heads of state sit together to say Savimbi is a war criminal, but when anybody wants to act against UNITA you get no cooperation whatsoever," Potgieter said. Angolan and Congo conflict According to the ISS researcher, the only functioning tactical radar capable of picking up low flying sanctions-busting aircraft heading into Angola are operating on the South African and Botswana border. Their deployment has "diminished substantially" the amount of suspicious flights emanating from South Africa's many under-supervised airfields, but the result has been that sanctions busters have moved to places where there is even less monitoring, Potgieter said. Alluding to evidence of collusion between some Zambian officials and UNITA, he added: "In certain cases, interests other than a normal inability or lack of equipment are at work." In a statement that surprised some analysts, Zimbabwe's Permanent Representative to the United Nations this week told the arms control conference that the operations of SADC's Harare-based Inter State Defence and Security Committee (ISDSC) had resulted in the interception of illegal flights to UNITA in 1997. But Potgieter pointed out that since that start of the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the ISDSC had been hobbled and has ceased to function as an intelligence sharing mechanism capable of combating illegal arms flows. The initiative has instead moved to the regional police body, SARPCCO. The DRC conflict in itself is a source of regional destabilisation. "Even with an end to the civil war and demobilisation, there will still be a problem of how to deal with the weapons in circulation," Govindjee said. "There is no machinery to collect all the weapons and as long as they are in circulation they will cause havoc." At direct risk is northern Zambia, where armed criminality is already on the rise as weapons are bought and sold across the border. Illegal weapons are bound to spread further still. "History tells us: Apartheid supplied thousands of AK-47s to UNITA and (the Mozambican rebels) RENAMO, and they flowed back into South Africa," the Ceasefire spokesman added. Both Potgieter and Govindjee identified Zimbabwe as another potential market for illicit arms as the country's political and economic crisis deepens. "We already have destabilisation in Zimbabwe and there is a fear of worse to come" if next year's presidential election is not seen as free and fair, Govindjee noted. Destruction of stocks Beyond control of the flow of weapons is the vital issue of the destruction of surplus stocks. South Africa's deputy minister for safety and security, Joe Mathews, told the UN conference on Friday that South Africa is "firmly of the view that stringent measures should be put in place to control the transfer of surplus small arms with the emphasis on destroying such arms rather than selling them on the open market". Africa in particular, he said, "has experienced the practice of having excess weapons dumped on our continent, which in turn are used to fuel conflict and crime." Since 1996, South Africa and Mozambique have been collaborating in the identification and destruction of arms caches left over from the civil war. "Africa has witnessed the horrific effects of small arms and light weapons in fuelling internal conflicts and violent crime. We are confronted with the terror of armed banditry and the reality that our children are turned into soldiers and our women become the principal targets of violence," Mathews said. "The struggle against the excessive and destabilising accumulation of small arms and light weapons is not an impossible task but requires more than just government to government co-operation," the deputy minister added. "We have to recognise that without an international partnership between states and civil society our efforts to eradicate the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in all its aspects will falter." For more details on the 9-20 July UN Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons see: http://www.un.org/Depts/dda/CAB/smallarms