BBC Monitoring Africa - Political Supplied by BBC Worldwide Monitoring May 24, 2002, Friday HEADLINE: Ghana: ECOWAS meeting discusses proliferation of small arms SOURCE: Daily Graphic, Accra, in English 21 May 02 p 32 Excerpt from article entitled "Review laws on acquisition, manufacture of firearms" published by Ghanaian newspaper Daily Graphic on 21 May The chairman of the Ghana Action Network on Small Arms, Lt-Gen Emmanuel Erskine, has called for a comprehensive review of the country's law on acquisition, possession and manufacture of firearms to check the proliferation of illicit weapons and their attendant problem of armed robbery, communal violence and conflict. He also underscored the need for government to establish a permanent commission to deal with arms issues and implement provisions of the ECOWAS convention on the importation and exportation, as well as the manufacture of firearms. Lt-Gen Erskine was speaking at the opening session of the foundation of the West Africa Action Network on Small Arms WAANSA in Accra yesterday. The two-day conference is being attended by delegates from Ghana, Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Senegal, The Gambia, Nigeria, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Togo and Liberia, as well as UN agencies and international NGOs. The conference is designed to approve the foundation document of WAANSA as well as prepare and adopt programmes of action and structure of the network. Lt-Gen Erskine said statistics indicate that there are 40,000 small arms in Ghana which are outside the control of the state. He said unless the necessary legislation and measures are taken, the spate of armed robberies, uxoricide, communal violence and conflicts cannot be reduced to the barest minimum. He said the possession, acquisition and manufacture of illicit weapons are partly responsible for conflicts and violence in the Northern Region of Ghana and other part of the African continent. He said small arms in the hands of non-state actors particularly have led to the death of thousands of people in the Mano Basin States of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, as well as Nigeria, Ghana, and Guinea Bissau. Lt-Gen Erskine, who is a former commander of United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, said there are some 8 million illicit arms in West Africa, adding "that this situation is unacceptable." He therefore called on governments in the subregion to implement the conventions of the Economic Community of West African States on exportation and importation of firearms. He explained that West African leaders signed a moratorium in 1998 to stop the importation and exportation as well as the manufacture of firearms for three years. He said the moratorium which expired in October last year has been renewed and it enjoins West African countries to go through specific procedures in the event that it becomes necessary for them to import, export and manufacture any firearms...