DISARMAMENT:
The Meltdown Begins
By Rajiv Fernando
It was gesture to pave
the way. A meltdown took
place last week, but it
wasn't the collapse of a
government or
institution -- rather
the destruction of
nearly 14,000 small arms
and light weapons in
Colombia on
International Gun
Destruction Day.
Organised by the U.N.
Office on Drugs and
Crime (UNODC), the
Colombian Ministry of
Defence, the national
armed forces and the
"Vida Sagrada" programme,
this special ceremony in
the city of Sogamoso
highlighted the dangers
of illegal arms
proliferation.
The molten metal will go
towards the manufacture
of school chairs and the
construction of a
monument in memory of
the victims of violence
and kidnapping in
Colombia.
Stefen Liller from UNODC
in Bogota told IPS that
his agency supports a
number of activities
relating to small arms
and light weapons,
including supporting
non-violence initiatives
and training the armed
forces in basic
investigative techniques
to combat the illegal
trafficking in firearms.
Colombian Ambassador
Claudia Blum clarified
that the weapons
destroyed in the
ceremony did not come
from the armed forces.
"There were 13,778
weapons destroyed, which
included machine guns,
handguns, rifles and
mortars," she told IPS.
"Out of these, the vast
majority -- 77 percent
-- were confiscated from
criminal organisations
and illegally armed
groups throughout the
national territory. The
rest were legally owned
weapons turned in by
private citizens
committed to security
and non-violent
coexistence."
A recent report by UNODC
also challenged the
perception that Colombia
is plagued by
indiscriminate violence.
Rather, the use of
firearms is closely
controlled and regulated
by criminal gangs, rebel
groups and the
government.
Although Colombia has
gone through a mass
demobilisation of
paramilitary groups in
recent years, groups
like Human Rights Watch
say that the Alvaro
Uribe government has
since "lost track of
several thousand of
these supposedly
demobilised troops, and
does not currently know
where they are or what
they are doing."
HRW notes that "both the
Organisation of American
States and the Office of
the U.N. High
Commissioner for Human
Rights in Colombia have
reported that mid-level
paramilitary commanders
continue to engage in
criminal activity and
recruitment of new
troops." The New
York-based group
continues to regularly
receive reports about
threats and killings of
human rights defenders
by paramilitary groups.
Colombia has one of the
highest homicide rates
in the world. One
startling figure from
UNODC shows that 70
percent of over 17,000
murders in 2005 were
committed with firearms.
By contrast, the average
global rate of firearm
deaths, excluding
situations of armed
conflict, for that same
year was about 15
percent.
Most homicides in
Colombia are connected
with illegal ownership,
manufacture and trade of
firearms. Interestingly,
cities that had the
highest numbers of legal
firearms also had the
lowest homicide rates,
while cities with the
highest murder rates
were those with the
lowest number of legal
arms.
Bogota's "vouchers for
arms" campaign,
instituted by the
mayor's office, gave
participants a voucher
worth about 100 dollars
that could be exchanged
for food, clothing and
other goods. It also
included awareness
programmes at schools
and other sites.
Colombia is hardly the
only country with a gun
problem. According to
the Control Arms
Campaign, there are 639
million small arms and
light weapons in the
world today. Eight
million more are
produced every year.
Rights groups argue that
without strict control,
such weapons will
continue to fuel violent
conflict, state
repression, crime and
domestic abuse.
Alun Howard of the
International Action
Network for Small Arms,
a member of the Control
Arms Campaign, told IPS
that momentum was
steadily building to
pass a global arms trade
treaty (ATT).
The proposed treaty,
which was backed by 153
of the 192 member states
in a resolution adopted
by the U.N. General
Assembly in December
2006, does not envisage
a total ban. But it is
expected to call for far
greater regulation of
the production and sale
of small arms, including
handguns.
"The process will
develop a
legally-binding global
ATT that would apply to
international trade of
all conventional arms,
from battleships to
guns," he said. "The ATT
will therefore apply to
small arms, and also
tanks, planes etc."
"There is no text for an
ATT at the moment,"
Howard added.
Despite broad support
among most countries,
one hindrance is that
the world's leading arms
manufacturers are also
the most powerful in the
United Nations, namely
the five permanent
members of the Security
Council: the United
States, Britain, France,
China and Russia.
The United States was
the only U.N. member
state to vote against
the December 2006
resolution, while 24
governments abstained.
Regarding the recent gun
destruction in Colombia,
Howard said that while
it was not directly
related to the campaign
for an ATT, members of
his group were also
"campaigning for
stronger regulations on
the weapons that are
proliferating within
their own societies."
Several other countries
also celebrated
International Gun
Destruction Day.
In Ukraine, a symbolic
"millionth weapon
destruction" event was
held in Kiev on Jul. 11.
Ukraine is one of the
countries where the U.S.
is funding a weapons
destruction programme.
SasaNet Sri Lanka
organised three events
to commemorate
International Gun
Destruction Day. An art
exhibition with the
theme "Say No to Guns"
displayed 120 pastel
drawings chosen from
nearly 540 entries
submitted by Sri Lankan
schoolchildren. The
second event was a
meeting between civil
society representatives
and officials
responsible for gun
licensing. The final
event was a live,
hour-long radio
programme on the
importance and relevance
of International Gun
Destruction Day to Sri
Lanka.
"If you look at what
UNODC is doing and the
other U.N. offices,
they're all reaching the
same goals and all roads
lead to the same thing,"
Jayantha Dhanapala,
former
under-secretary-general
for Disarmament Affairs,
told IPS.
Earlier in his career
Dhanapala was involved
in orchestrating a
similar programme in
Albania. In a 1999
public ceremony, a
number of weapons were
symbolically destroyed
by mechanical cutting in
what was known as the
Gramsh Pilot Project.
Formally launched in
November 1998, its
objective was to assist
the government of
Albania in collecting
weapons and creating
incentives for civilians
to surrender their
weapons.
|
