ECOWAS Press Release No. 58/2000 ECOWAS Hosts Workshop on Small Arms 24 August 2000 A sub regional workshop on the development of a curriculum for the training of ECOWAS military, security and police forces on the control of small arms within the sub-region is to be held at the Secretariat of the Organisation in Abuja from 28th August, 2000. The four-day workshop would determine key elements that would be included in the capacity building training programmes to strengthen the military, security and police forces of Member States to enable them implement the sub-regional moratorium on the importation, exportation and manufacture of light weapons. It would also offer an opportunity for the Chiefs of Police, Customs and Gendarmerie of ECOWAS to initiate the process of establishing an information exchange network and strategy for controlling the menace. The training programme and improved access to modern arms control methods were some of the priorities incorporated in the plan of action adopted in March 1999 in Bamako by ECOWAS Ministers of Foreign Affairs, to facilitate the implementation of the moratorium. The plan of action was signed by Heads of State during the Lome Summit in December 1999. The workshop is jointly organised by Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and Programme for Co-ordination and Assistance for Security and Development (PCASED) under the aegis of the plan of action for the implementation of the sub-regional moratorium on the importation, exportation and manufacture of light weapons. At least two persons mostly Chiefs of Police, Customs and Gendarmerie from each of the 16 Member States are to participate in the workshop. The moratorium was declared by ECOWAS leaders for an initial period of three years in October 1998 as one of the measures to check the proliferation of light weapons, which has been blamed for the sporadic outbreak of violence in the sub-region. This has resulted in the loss of lives, particularly women and children, the displacement of persons, destruction of infrastructure and the frustration of the development efforts of the sub-region. The curriculum to be developed would include general information on the diffusion of small arms, modern techniques of maintenance of law and order, methods of collecting small arms and dealing with drug trafficking. It would also deal with cross border crime and effective ways of maintaining national weapons arsenals.