Det danske Fredsakademi
Kronologi over fredssagen og international politik 11. januar 2006 / Time Line January 11, 2006
Version 3.510. Januar 2006, 12. Januar 2006
01/11/2006
Vatican speaks out against small arms
By Eric J. Lyman at the Vatican
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=14295
ISN SECURITY WATCH (11/01/06) - The Vatican’s permanent
representative at the UN has called for the development of an
international accord limiting the trade of light arms. Observers
and officials working in the Holy See say the move demonstrates
that the Vatican is looking to increase its visibility in
international affairs.
Archbishop Celestino Migliore on Monday told the UN it should
foster international cooperation aimed at reducing the demand for
small arms around the world, a break from previous strategies that
have focused on reducing the supply of small arms.
“To reduce drastically the demand for small arms requires not
only political will but better focused research into the dynamics
of conflicts, crimes, and violence,” Migliore told a UN
committee preparing for the UN Conference to Review Progress Made
in the Implementation of the Program of Action to Prevent, Combat,
and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons
(SALW) in All Its Aspects. “This obliges us to act
responsibly to promote a real culture of peace and life among all
members of society.”
The papal representative said the upcoming conference on the
subject had the potential to be the most important since the UN
program was established in 2001.
“The 2006 conference should agree to establish major
international cooperative programs and mechanisms to promote key
parts of the Program of Action, which may include stockpile
management and security, weapons and ammunitions collection and
their safe and secure destruction, and national controls on the
production of small arms and light weapons and transfers,”
Migliore said.
“It would therefore be most useful to start a serious
reflection on the possibility of negotiating a legally binding
instrument on international arms trade. If we consider both the
humanitarian costs of these arms […] then it becomes clear
that greater attention now needs to be paid to reducing the demand
for these items.”
The 26 June-7 July conference, Milgliore continued, should enable
“interested states and relevant organizations to flesh out
principles, policies, and programs that address the links between
efforts to prevent and reduce SALW trafficking, proliferation, and
misuse”. Officials in the Holy See told ISN Security Watch
that the papal representative’s statements did not represent
a change in the Vatican’s views on this topic, but that they
did represent a change in priorities.
“This is an area of growing concern and so the role the Holy
See can play is growing,” one official in the communications
office said, asking not to be further identified. “Our views
have not changed, but the importance of the topic is
changing.”
According to the Rev. Alistair Sear, a church historian, topics
related to small arms trade could become a key issue for the
Vatican under Pope Benedict XVI.
In the international arena, John Paul II’s papacy championed
issues like poverty alleviation, peace negotiations, an outreach to
youth, and the growth of the church in the developing world,”
Sear told ISN Security Watch.
He said it was “very possible” that this issue of small
arms trade and its role in violence and organized crime would be
“championed by Pope Benedict”. If that is so, it would
be in line with previous moves by the Holy See.
At World Youth Day gatherings in Germany in August, the Pope made
at least two references to the need to reduce the number small arms
and small bombs in circulation in the world. He said that over time
they were responsible for more lost lives than larger weapons.
In December, the Vatican ratified the Protocol on Explosive
Remnants of War, a UN-sponsored document aimed at eliminating the
unexploded artillery shells and other devices that pose
post-conflict humanitarian threats. That protocol was the first
bilateral agreement to be ratified by the Vatican under Pope
Benedict XVI when Migliore filed the necessary paperwork on 18
December.
http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/FULL/610?OpenDocument
According to UN documents distributed by the Vatican, there are now
more than 600 million small arms and light weapons in circulation
worldwide. Of 49 major conflicts in the 1990s, 47 were waged with
small arms as the weapons of choice, the documents said.
According to the documents, small arms are responsible for over
half a million deaths per year, including 300,000 in armed conflict
and 200,000 more from homicides and suicides.
01/11/2006
Are Small Arms the Real WMD?
By: Thalif Deen
http://www.humansecuritygateway.info/data/item627257590/view
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 11 (IPS) - The United Nations argues that small
arms -- including assault rifles, grenade launchers and sub-machine
guns -- are primarily responsible for much of the death and
destruction in conflicts throughout the world.
But despite the availability of over 600 million small arms in open
and underground markets, there is no international treaty to
control the reckless proliferation of these light weapons
worldwide.
"Dinosaur bones and old postage stamps", yes, but a treaty on small
arms, no, says Sarah Margon, director of Oxfam.
"No one but a criminal would knowingly sell a gun to a murderer,
yet governments can sell weapons to regimes with a history of human
rights violations or to countries where weapons will go to war
criminals," she points out.
Currently, the United Nations is holding a two-week preparatory
meeting -- due to conclude Jan. 20 -- preparing the ground for a
landmark Review Conference on small arms in July.
"There is a growing awareness that the current loopholes in the
arms export laws cannot be allowed to persist," Anthea Lawson of
the London-based International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA)
told IPS.
Arguing that the global arms trade is "out of control", she said
that every year thousands of people die at the barrel of a gun.
"We are reasonably confident that governments will recognise the
need for some kind of global standard for small arms transfers at
the Review Conference in July," she said.
In order to be effective, Lawson said, this standard needs to be
based on international law. "This would then provide a vital
stepping stone for negotiations on a treaty to begin later in the
year," she said.
Although 43 states and several regional blocs have clearly stated
their support for an arms trade treaty, others do not yet have
formal positions, she added. The 43 supporters include Belgium,
Cambodia, Denmark, Finland, the Vatican, France, Sweden,
Switzerland, Iceland and Britain.
Until negotiations begin, those in opposition will not say so
explicitly. However, among those expressing the least enthusiasm at
the moment are India, Egypt, Iran and the United States, Lawson
pointed out.
In 2001, the United Nations adopted a programme of action to
prevent, combat and eradicate the illicit trade in small arms and
light weapons. This was considered a "major achievement" because it
was the first time that arms proliferation was tackled at a global
level.
"But the agreement was limited in scope, and progress since has
been patchy," according to Lawson.
Addressing delegates Monday, Earl Turcotte of Canada said he was
struck by the innocuous sound of the words "small arms" and "light
weapons", since their collective impact on people was anything but
small and light.
He said there were in excess of some 600 million small arms and
light weapons in circulation worldwide. Last year, small arms alone
were instrumental in the deaths of over half a million people --
10,000 per week.
"The vast majority comprised civilians, and at least a third were
struck down in countries at peace," Turcotte said.
The upcoming Review Conference in July is a seminal opportunity to
set a clear timetable for continuing the U.N. process, increase
momentum and produce substantial, concrete results over the next
five-year period in the implementation of the programme of action,
he added.
Sylvester Rowe of Sierra Leone, who was elected chairman of the
current preparatory meeting, told delegates that one of the best
credentials he had for his assignment was the fact that he comes
from a country that has experienced -- and is still experiencing --
the agony and the devastating consequences of the illicit trade,
circulation and use of "what were euphemistically described as
small arms and light weapons".
There was an emerging recognition that small arms and light weapons
were, in fact, the real "weapons of mass destruction", he
added.
Meanwhile, there have been new case study reports from Haiti, the
Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra Leone focusing on
"irresponsible arms transfers".
All three countries produce very few arms, but they have been
flooded with weapons, "which have been used to kill, maim, displace
and impoverish hundreds of thousands of people", according to
Denise Searle, Amnesty International's senior campaign
director.
"Time and again, peacekeeping efforts have been undermined by the
failure of governments to introduce effective arms controls," he
said.
"For the sake of millions of men, women and children who live in
continual fear of armed violence, world leaders must seize this
historic opportunity to begin negotiations on an arms trade
treaty," he added. (END/2006)
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