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Pacific Plan to Curb Small Arms Trade - UN Security Council - Global Policy Forum Pacific Plan to Curb Small Arms Trade
Agence France Presse
May 9, 2001
Law enforcement officers from 14 Pacific Island nations called Wednesday for uniform laws to halt small-arms trafficking. Representatives from Japan, New Zealand and the United States, also at the talks, heard of an upsurge in the illegal trade in handguns and rifles in the region.
Former Australian High Commissioner to Fiji and Vanuatu Greg Urwin said tens of thousands of people had been killed in Bougainville, the Solomon Islands and other nations over the past decade, mostly by illegal small arms. "We have in the past been inclined to be a bit complacent about this in the South Pacific because there wasn't a great deal of it happening ... but it is a growing problem," he said. He said uniform laws, coupled with regional cooperation between police and customs officials, would help reduce the trafficking of small arms.
"If we have comprehensive legislation which looks similar across the range of countries in the region it makes it that much easier for them to cooperate," Urwin said. Urwin said small arms and light weapons were being supplied by pirates, raids on government armouries and local illegal manufacturers, as well as from Southeast Asia and the Middle East. "It's a pretty global trade these days and the arms can come from anywhere," he added.
United Nations negotiator Mitsuro Donowaki said this week's talks would be important in the lead-up to the UN's first conference on the illicit trafficking of small arms in July. Donowaki said it was hoped the July conference would endorse a declaration of political commitment to reduce the illegal small arms trade globally and a programme of action backed by funding from the world's major powers.
"What we are questioning is the fact that in recent years there are so many internal wars and regional wars where mostly small arms are used and not major tanks or fighter planes," he said.
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