WEST AFRICA: IRIN Focus on renewal of small arms moratorium June 11, 2001 ACCRA, 11 June (IRIN) - West African civil society groups have urged the subregion's leaders to renew a three-year moratorium on the import, export and manufacture of small arms that expires this year and "ensure its effective and efficient implementation". Participants in a civil society consultation on the moratorium, held on 7-9 June in Accra, Ghana, also called on the UN system to "pursue its political, technical and financial support to the moratorium" and declare the illicit trade in small arms a "crime against peace and humanity" to be punished as such. Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) signed the 'Declaration of a Moratorium on Importation, Exportation and Manufacture of Light Weapons in West Africa' on 31 October 1998 in Abuja, Nigeria. They followed this up on 10 December 1999, by approving a 'Code of Conduct for the Implementation of the Moratorium' in Lome, Togo. Encouraging signs Although the moratorium was a political initiative and not legally binding, the fact that some states had applied for exemptions to buy weapons - as prescribed in the code of conduct - was an encouraging sign, Afi Yakubu of the Foundation for Security and Development in Africa (FOSDA), said. "It is on record that countries such as Ghana, The Gambia, Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire and Nigeria (have) actually sought exemption from the ECOWAS executive secretary to import small arms for training the police or armed forces, or for peacekeeping in Sierra Leone," she said. "Five years ago this would have been unheard of." However, she said, there had been "one or two violations" by countries and the moratorium had failed to curtail the recycling of weapons from one conflict zone to another and there were still wars in the region. Civil society organisations plan to evaluate the moratorium, propose changes and help to monitor implementation. The Code of Conduct requires governments to create national commissions to "promote and ensure coordination of concrete measures for effective implementation of the moratorium. However, only about six countries have done so. The civil society representatives called on ECOWAS leaders to set up the commissions where they do not exist and strengthen existing ones. They also urged governments to ensure full participation of civil society in the commissions", another Code of Conduct requirement. The Accra meeting's final declaration, issued on Saturday, also calls on ECOWAS leaders to declare 31 October an annual Moratorium Day. Effects of the proliferation of small arms Small and light weapons are those which can be carried by one or two persons or loaded onto a light vehicle. They include rifles, carabines, pistols, submachine and machine guns, anti- tank guns, mortars and howitzers. Such weapons have been used to wage 46 of the estimated 49 wars fought in Africa between 1970 and 1996. Each year, there are over 700,000 deaths from small arms, more than half of them in Africa, according to 'Light Weapons, the Making of the Moratorium', a study published in April by the UN Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa, based in Lome, Togo, in cooperation with the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. Yakubu said there were an estimated 100 million small arms in the hands of non-state actors in Africa. The proliferation of such weapons was the major factor in the ethnic and religious strife, political instability and violent crime on the continent, she said. Within West Africa, examples of the effects of small arms abound, including the hundreds of thousands of people displaced by conflicts in Guinea, Liberia, Senegal and Sierra Leone. The proliferation of small arms and light weapons in West Africa "undermines good governance, violates fundamental human rights and jeopardizes economic development, social justice and peace," the forum noted in its final declaration. The civil society representatives were also concerned about "the increasing complexity of the global flow in both licit and illicit small arms and its close linkages with organised crime", including the trafficking of blood diamonds, armed robberies, child trafficking, the drug trade, money laundering and mercenary activities. Factors that encourage the proliferation of small arms Factors that encourage the proliferation of small arms in Africa include problems of governance, such as the mismanagement of resources, non-adherence to the rule of law, ineffective policing, ethnic domination and manipulation and the conflicts and political instability they often cause, according to Dr Olumide Ajayi , programmes manager of the Africa Leadership Forum in Ota, Nigeria. Weak national and regional legislation on the manufacture, trade and use of small weapons were another contributory factor, and "current conflicts are major vents for the supply and accumulation of small arms," he said. Most of these conflicts were over economic resources and involved international networks of political and business concerns which were sometimes difficult to decode. This, he added, was why the major prolonged wars - those most lucrative to weapons dealers - were concentrated in resource-rich countries such as Angola , the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone. Most export control systems in the region were weak and inaction by governments and officials encouraged the cross-border transfer of arms, he said. And, he added, "some of the small arms and light weapons being used within a (given) state are from government armouries." Comprehensive approach needed A comprehensive approach to peace building as a means of stemming arms proliferation was needed, he noted, and in this connection the principles of the Conference on Security, Stability, Development and Cooperation in Africa were particularly relevant. The CSSDCA, proposed in 1991 by the ALF, amended with inputs from civil society organisations in April 2000 and adopted by the Organisation of African Unity at its 36th summit in Togo in July 2000, is a standing conference that meets every two years. Its components are security, stability, development and cooperation. Two of the principles on which its security component is anchored are that measures should be taken to prevent or contain conflicts before they become violent confrontations, and that Africa needs a framework of common and collective continental security. African governments must also be guided by the principles of good neighbourliness and peaceful resolution of conflicts, and national and continental self-reliance in certain strategic areas are vital for Africa's security and must cover military and non-military aspects. The idea that security, including the issue of small arms, needs to be looked at from a broad perspective, was an underlying theme at the consultation. "Real security lies in development, in the sustained improvement of people's living standards," Togba na Tipoteh, president of the Movement for Justice in Africa, told IRIN. Other calls Saturday's Accra Declaration also urged the international community to continue and strengthen its support for the moratorium. It called on the United Nations to adopt a convention against small arms and an international marking regime on small arms so as to make it easier to trace such weapons, especially when they are traded illegally. The forum was attended by academics, representatives of non-governmental organisations, religious groups, national commissions on small arms, some West African armed forces and other bodies. It was organised by two Accra-based research and advocacy institutions, the African Security Dialogue and Research (ASDR) and FOSDA, and the UN Programme of Coordination and Assistance for Development (PCASED), headquartered in Bamako, Mali. [PCASED operates within the framework of the UN Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa , and is financed by UNDP and bilateral donors. Its brief is to help ECOWAS attain the Moratorium's objectives of peace, security and stability.] Participants plan to meet again in Freetown, Sierra Leone, in October to formalise the establishment of a West African network on small arms that will coordinate civil society's struggle against the proliferation of such weapons. In the meantime, they hope to generate international support for the moratorium at the United Nations Conference on Small Arms in New York from 9 to 20 July 2001. With a view to ensuring effective regional participation in that meeting, Saturday's declaration urged West African leaders to "strengthen their delegations by including civil society experts". They also urged them to organise ceremonial arms destruction ceremonies during the course of the July conference. So far, Ghana and Mali have announced that they plan to do so. Whether or not the moratorium results in a secure West Africa will depend on the political will of all concerned at all levels, participants said. "We, civil society, all have an important role to play - the churches, the media, elders, communities and others," said Emmanuel Erskine, a former commander of UNIFIL and a member of ASDR's advisory board. "And, as discussed here, there needs to be cooperation between civil society and governments to make sure that the aims and objectives of the moratorium are achieved," he told IRIN.