UNITED NATIONS WORKSHOP DELEGATES DENOUNCE LINK BETWEEN SMALL ARMS TRADING AND ILLICIT DRUG TRAFFICKING IN AFRICA

Press Release
DC/2658

UNITED NATIONS WORKSHOP DELEGATES DENOUNCE LINK BETWEEN SMALL ARMS TRADING AND ILLICIT DRUG TRAFFICKING IN AFRICA

Representatives of 25 Countries Attend Meeting in Lomé, Togo

NEW YORK, 4 August (Department for Disarmament Affairs) -- Delegates from more than 25 African countries attending the three-day United Nations workshop in Lomé, Togo, on the illicit trafficking in small arms in Africa, have been considering concrete measures to deal with the problem. On the second day of the workshop yesterday (3 August), the focus was on ways to curb illicit dealings in light weapons on the African continent, including enhanced compliance with arms embargoes.

Speakers denounced the link between illicit trafficking in small arms in Africa and organized crime, drug trafficking, contraband trading and the phenomenon of child soldiers.

Delegations from Algeria, Benin, Cameroon, Congo, Egypt, Nigeria and Zambia presented reports on their efforts at the national level to fight illicit traffic in small arms. Most of them underlined the critical role that the international community and donor countries play in support of country efforts. Zambia, where a huge stockpile of 6 million weapons and ammunition was recently seized, was said to be a striking illustration of the problem at hand.

The case of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has known three civil wars since independence involving between 50,000 and 60,000 child soldiers, led participants at the workshop to formulate a recommendation inviting the United Nations Secretary-General to deploy an advisory mission on the collection and control of light weapons in the Congo and the Central African subregion, similar to the mission he sent to West Africa in 1994-1995.

The workshop also surveyed data-collection techniques with a view to identifying topics of specific concern to Africa. To this effect, a proposal was made that the current list of conventional weapons included in the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms should be expanded to include the light weapons that have wrought so much mayhem and killed millions of people in Africa's chain of conflicts, crises and wars since independence.

- 2 - Press Release DC/2658 5 August 1999

The possibility of implementing the proposed Firearms Protocol supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Crime was also considered. The United Nations Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament issued an appeal for support for its planned study on child soldiers in Africa, as well as its broader programme of demobilizing and reintegrating former child combatants.

* *** *