WEST AFRICA: SMALL ARMS FUELING VIOLENT CRIME By Remi Oyo Article Dated 7/19/2001 LAGOS, (IPS) -- Law enforcement officials from Nigeria and Benin will meet to discuss new measures to control the smuggling of small arms and stem cross-border banditry, according to a police spokesperson. Haz Iwendi says "police officers from Benin Republic will travel to Nigeria for talks in a fortnight. The meeting follows a visit to Benin Republic by the Inspector General of Police recently." The meeting comes in the wake of growing concern among heads of state of the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) over the influx of small arms into the subregion. It also follows the start of an investigation by the Nigerian police into a large cache of arms seized near the country's porous border. The arms concealed in 106 cartons, which included 26,500 shotgun shells, were intercepted by the police in Alabata village near Abeokuta, some 100 kilometers northeast of Lagos. Preliminary inquiries suggest that the arms originated in Spain, and were shipped to Benin via Ghana. Nine people, including a 75-year-old blind Nigerian and an Ivorian, have been arrested. Iwendi says the police chiefs from Nigeria and Benin will discuss how to better stem the illegal weapons smuggling that fuels violent crime, which is particularly rampant in Nigeria. A moratorium on trade in small arms was signed by ECOWAS member states on Oct. 31, 1998. This month, the heads of state agreed to extend it by a further three years, beginning July 5. The ECOWAS Secretariat says the moratorium applies to the import, export and manufacture of light weapons, which include revolvers, shotguns, military and non-military rifles, lightweight machine guns, anti-tank mortars and land mines. With the assistance of the U.N. Development Program (UNDP) for Coordination and Assistance for Security and Development (PCASED), the ECOWAS Secretariat is expected to develop an arms register aimed at "developing an electronic database of all legitimate stocks of weapons, ammunition and components covered by the moratorium." ECOWAS member states may seek an exemption from the moratorium "to meet legitimate national security needs or international peace operations." This exemption is particularly important for the subregion, which has suffered violence in several countries including Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. So far, the U.N. peacekeepers in Sierra Leone are helping the government convert surplus weapons, including assault rifles and handguns, into agricultural implements. Ahmad Tejan Kebbah, the country's president, is a former senior UNDP official. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's last report on Sierra Leone, issued June 25, said 2,991 weapons were handed in by combatants, who had been disarming since May 18. As part of its "weapons-for-development" project, the UNDP is providing developing nations with financial and technical assistance to destroy surplus arms or help turn them into shovels and pickaxes. "The issue of illicit small arms is a development issue," says Omar Bakhet, director of UNDP's emergency response division. The UNDP is pushing its project at the U.N. conference on small arms, which is scheduled to end in New York on July 20. "Where guns dominate, development suffers," says UNDP Administrator Mark Malloch Brown. "Schools close, shops close, commerce stops and the local economy grinds to a halt." The agency helps destroy surplus arms but opposes weapons buy-back programs, arguing that in many instances, people surrendering their weapons for cash are not likely to use that money for development purposes but are more likely to purchase a newer weapon. ECOWAS Executive Secretary Lasana Kouyate has described the moratorium as a "bold and ambitious step," but warned that nothing will happen unless more steps, including securing assistance from the donors, are taken. The UNDP project, set up in March 1999, will run for five years. Its budget is estimated at $13 million, out of which some $5.5 million have been committed. "There are risks involved with all these projects but to do nothing is to admit defeat," says Kouyate. The need for a common action is particularly urgent for Nigeria where in the past 10 months, 412 people, including 84 policemen, have been killed by armed robbers.