PREPARATORY COMMITTEE FOR 2001 CONFERENCE ON SMALL ARMS OPENS FIRST SESSION, ELECTS CHAIRMAN

Press Release
DC/2680

PREPARATORY COMMITTEE FOR 2001 CONFERENCE ON SMALL ARMS OPENS FIRST SESSION, ELECTS CHAIRMAN

The Preparatory Committee of the 2001 Conference on Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects opened its first session this morning, electing Carlos dos Santos (Mozambique) Chairman and adopting its provisional agenda and work programme.

The Preparatory Committee also elected the following as Vice-Chairmen: Shen Guofang (China); Makmur Widodo (Indonesia); Hamid Baeidi Nejad (Iran); Norio Hatori (Japan); Luiz Filipe de Macedo Soares (Brazil); Juan Miguel Miranda (Peru); Richard Pierce (Jamaica); Nury Vargas (Costa Rica); Yahsar Aliyev (Azerbaijan); Alyaksandr Sychov (Belarus); Valeri Kuchynski (Ukraine); and Przemyslaw Wyganowski (Poland). Vice-Chairmen from among the Western European and Other States, as well as the African Group, are to be elected at a future date. The Rapporteur is also expected to be elected at a subsequent meeting of the Committee.

Speaking after his election, Mr. dos Santos (Mozambique) said the United Nations had played a leading role in addressing the problems posed by the excessive and destabilizing accumulation and illicit trade in small arms and light weapons, since the first General Assembly resolution on small arms was adopted more than five years ago. Subregional and regional organizations had made considerable efforts in building the momentum leading to the international focus on small arms.

It was incumbent on the Committee to build on those efforts to reach a consensus on the means to curb, globally, the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons, he added. The Conference was not an end in itself, but the means for deciding on pragmatic, realistic and practical measures at curbing that trade. The General Assembly resolution (document A/54/54 V of 15 December 1999) offered one framework for a programme of action to be adopted by the Conference. The Preparatory Committee’s first session was, therefore, extremely important, as it would lay the foundation and provide the road map, as well as the architecture, for the Conference. A number of key decisions would be made by the Preparatory Committee during the session, including the date and venue of the 2001 Conference and the dates and venue of the subsequent sessions of the Preparatory Committee, he said.

Jayantha Dhanapala, Under Secretary-General for Disarmament Affairs, opened the session, which is scheduled to end on Friday, 3 March.

The Preparatory Committee will meet again at 3 p.m. today to begin its general debate. * *** *