Ghana Calls for Action Against Arms Proliferation Dakar PANA (Internet Version) in English 23 Sep 99 PANA Thursday, September 23, 1999 Journal Code: 775 Language: ENGLISH Record Type: FULLTEXT Document Type: Daily Report; News Word Count: 385 ACCRA, Ghana (PANA) -- An international workshop on the establishment of a database of light weapons in Africa opened Thursday in Accra with a call on the industrialised countries to join developing nations in their efforts against the proliferation of arms in the society. Ghana's vice-president, John Mills, urged governments, NGOs, churches and the media to also lend their support by sharing in the information on the acquisition and movements of small arms in the society. He said Africa has suffered a great deal from civil strife as a result of the proliferation of small arms and light weapons on the continent. "No day passes without the media reporting distressing cases in which innocent people, including women and children, have been killed or injured in various violent incidents and conflicts, arising from the use of small arms and light weapons," Mills said during the opening session. The workshop, under the auspices of the United Nations and the Economic Community of West African States, is being attended by policy makers as well as experts and researchers from some 20 African countries. Its objective is to carve modalities for the establishment of an arms register and database in Africa. The workshop forms part of the general framework for the implementation of the Moratorium on the Importation, Exportation and Manufacture of Light Weapons, declared by ECOWAS states in October 1998. It is estimated that some 20 million small arms are illegally circulating in the African civil society out of which 15 million isfound in the West African sub-region, in addition to landmines. Mills said Ghana is committed to the moratorium because it has realised that small arms have become both a cause and a catalyst of armed conflicts, urban banditry, child soldiers and armed robberies. The ECOWAS director of information, Adrienne Diop, expressed regret that ECOWAS, whose main objective was to foster economic integration, was now spending most of its resources on conflict resolution and peacekeeping. She, therefore, tasked political leaders to give the experts their goodwill to enable the new concept for the control of armsbecome real.