The global availability of small arms and light weapons (SALW) is increasingly recognised as a real hindrance to peace and security, and to relief and development activities. It is not, however, a straightforward issue.
Unlike anti-personnel mines, where the legislative control is relatively simple for many countries as they are banned under the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (Ottawa Treaty), controlling the production, transfer, possession and use of SALW is more complex.
To give even a partial sense of the scale of the problem it is worth considering the following statistics [1]:
• The global stockpile of small arms and light weapons is estimated at 639 million.
• Small arms and light weapons are responsible for the majority – between 60 and 90 percent – of direct conflict deaths: up to 108,000 in 2003.
• The use of small arms also contributes to indirect conflict deaths, which are likely to be many times higher than the number of direct deaths, though they vary greatly in magnitude from conflict to conflict.
• Small arms and light weapons destabilise regions; spark, fuel and prolong conflicts; obstruct relief programmes; undermine peace initiatives; exacerbate human rights abuses; hamper development; and foster a “culture of violence”.
 |
|
Part of a stockpile of weapons discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo. |
There is no internationally agreed definition for small arms and light weapons, though the UN comes close: in summary, small arms are broadly those weapons designed for individual use, such as revolvers and self-loading pistols, rifles and carbines, sub-machine guns, assault rifles and light machine guns.
Light weapons are weapons designed to be used by two or three persons serving as a crew, though some may be carried and used by one person. Light weapons include heavy machine guns, hand-held under-barrel and mounted grenade launchers, portable anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns, recoilless rifles and portable launchers of anti-tank missile and rocket systems, portable launchers of anti-aircraft missile systems (MANPADS [2]), and mortars of less than 100mm calibre [3].
It is important to note that reducing the availability of the correct type of ammunition is integral to efforts to reduce the threat posed by SALW – MAG’s work in the field equally contributes to this area of arms reduction.
There is increasing interest in and commitment to removing illicit small arms and light weapons from circulation, and donors are picking up the challenge of a broader, more integrated approach to the variety of threats caused by mines, ordnance and SALW.
For example, the UK’s Department for International Development states that the availability of SALW is a “multiplier of insecurity” [4]. Colin Powell, then US Secretary of State, warned in 2003 that “no threat is more serious to aviation” than man-portable air defence systems [5].
 |
|
SALW cause between 60 and 90 percent of direct conflict deaths. [Photo: Marc Angibeau, MAG DR Congo, SALW TOM and Project Manager] |
The US Department of State notes that the work it funds “contribute[s] to the prevention and mitigation of conflict, as well as post-conflict social and economic recovery... to curb the illicit trafficking, availability and indiscriminate use of conventional weapons of war that fuel regional and internal instability [and] to pursue and help manage post-conflict cleanup of such weapons in areas needed for civilian use” [6].
The European Union encourages a co-ordinated approach and considers “disarmament, arms control and demining as prerequisites for peace” [7].
MAG first became involved in the destruction of SALW in the 1990s by providing technical support to demobilisation programmes in Angola and Cambodia.
MAG teams possessed the necessary skills and equipment to deal with the small quantities of SALW being handed in by demobilising soldiers at quartering areas where MAG mine and unexploded ordnance (UXO) clearance activities were already established.
More recently, MAG has become involved in SALW removal and destruction on
a larger scale in countries such as Iraq and DR Congo. This has highlighted the need for funding for a dedicated long-term capacity and for donors to broaden their ability to support integrated programmes of this nature.
In 2006, in DR Congo, MAG learned of a large stockpile of weapons and ammunition in Mbandaka town, consisting of more than 10,000 firearms and
an estimated 100 tons of explosive ordnance. This stockpile was warehoused next to the local hospital in the centre of the town. Today, and within the
context of the nationwide programme of Disarmament Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR), MAG is making progress in destroying these weapons and the ammunition in co-operation with the Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo (FARDC).
An additional aspect of this project is to advise FARDC on safe methods of storage for hazardous items in accordance with relevant international standards and to train FARDC staff in safe disposal techniques and in munitions management so that in future legitimate stockpiles do not pose a threat to communities.
 |
|
SALW pose a serious threat to peace and reconstruction. [Photo: Marc Angibeau] |
Once items have been destroyed and/or rendered unusable, MAG tries where possible to ensure that the resulting scrap metal benefits the communities and reconstruction activities.
In Iraq, for example, scrap metal salvaged from the process was used to fund the rehabilitation of the school and hospital in the town of Hatra and to establish the Hatra Brass Recovery Company which then gave a proportion of the profits to the local town administration for use in regeneration projects.
SALW pose a serious threat to peace and reconstruction. They can be far more difficult to quantify, control and destroy than, for example, a minefield that once marked, represents a static and clearly defined threat, which can be further reduced through education until clearance takes place.
MAG has the necessary expertise and experience to conduct SALW removal and destruction efficiently and effectively in the typically challenging environments where such weapons present a problem, and sees its role as one that encompasses the destruction of both the weapons themselves and most items of explosive ordnance, ‘to reduce the risk that the tools of one completed conflict are used to fight another’ [8].
SALW is, therefore, an increasingly important aspect of MAG’s work both now and in the future.
Notes:
1. www.smallarmssurvey.org, May 2007.
2. Man Portable Air Defence Systems.
3. Summarised from UN Small Arms Review Conference, 2006.
4. European Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons and Explosive Remnants of War, Brussels, December 7th-8th 2005, Kate Joseph DFID Security Policy Advisor, Small Arms and Development Programmes.
5. Quoted in the Federation of American Scientists “APEC Nations Agree to Limit Missile Sales”, October 18th 2003, Dirk Beveridge, Associated Press.
6. Office of Weapons Removal and Abatement, U.S. Dept of State website, May 2007.
7. AU-EU Security Dialogue. Joint Concept Note, April 2007.
8. Presentation by Lou McGrath to the Mine Action Support group, Geneva, 7th July 2006.
This article first appeared in MAG's 2007 Annual Review, available to download in full in the Reports section of the website.
