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Strife in Africa is Blamed for Arms Increase
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The Nation (Nairobi)
November 28, 2003
Posted to the web November 28, 2003
Nation Team
Nairobi
Instability in the Great Lakes region is to blame for the increase of small arms in East Africa.
The United Nations is urging governments to curb their increase, saying half of the 500 million small arms estimated to be in circulation in the world were in Africa.
The United Nations Development Programme deputy resident representative, Mr Isaac Chivore, said China, Russia, and the US were the biggest producers of small arms in the world.
He told a parliamentary conference on small arms reduction that poor controls in most countries had fuelled the proliferation and misuse of the weapons.
The consequences of small arms trade were heavily felt in the Great Lakes, where more than eight million deaths had resulted from the arms since 1994.
"Governments from the Great Lakes region must move swiftly to curb proliferation of firearms for their countries to realise economic growth," Mr Chivore said, and added that illegal firearms trafficking in the region had contributed to underdevelopment through intimidation, threats and insecurity.
The conference, at the Whitesands Hotel Mombasa, is aimed at sensitising MPs on the threat of illicit arms to legitimate authorities. It is being attended by MPs and experts from eight African and five European countries.
The Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr Francis ole Kaparo, blamed poverty in Africa on unfair trade practices favouring the developed world.
Unless international trade practices were improved to accommodate Third World interests, the fight against terrorism would fail.
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He said: "Courtesy of modern technology, a criminal can today carry his dismantled weapon in a separate luggage, cross a national border with ease, assemble his lethal cargo in a second country, hit a target and stealthily escape into a third country unnoticed and carry on with his activities as a law-abiding foreign citizen."
The biggest challenge facing Africa was that even if it succeeded in controlling proliferation of the arms and allowed mass unemployment of young educated people, it would never be conflict-free.
