Charities Fight 'Real Weapons of Mass Destruction'

"Hel" is 13 years old and is already a combat veteran of three years with the Cambodian People’s Party armed forces.

He talks proudly of the day his commander took away the cut-down rifle he had been given and replaced it with a new lightweight Kalashnikov semi-automatic weapon. The Cambodian coalition government had recently received an arms consignment from a western country which would allow its young soldiers to fight on in local clashes with opposition rebels without the hindrance of heavy and outdated weapons.

Hel’s story from the archives of the Cambodian League for Promotion and Defense of Human Rights is sadly far from an isolated one. While the world’s governments concern themselves with the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction as part of the global “war on terror,” the weapons that do the most damage in conflict zones around the world continue to flow between countries, both legally and illegally.

Charity coalition launches Control Arms campaign

In an attempt to reduce the spread of small, conventional arms, Amnesty International, relief organization Oxfam and the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) are launching a worldwide campaign to reduce the spread of these weapons, which they say impact poor societies most.

The global Control Arms campaign will focus on promoting an international treaty covering arms transfers, "The Arms Trade Treaty," as well as a number of regional and locally appropriate measures designed to limit arms proliferation and misuse by 2006 through a set of common guidelines based on international law.

Arming allies in war on terror adds to problems

The three groups launched their campaign with a report issued on Thursday that states that, on average, 500,000 people are killed each year by armed violence - roughly one victim a minute. The report added that findings suggest that the "war on terror" has weakened national arms controls and fuelled the proliferation of conventional weapons, those which the charitable coalition calls the “real weapons of mass destruction.”

Of most concern is the West’s increased trade with the developing world. In an attempt to shore up national security, and as a result strengthen international efforts, western governments are stepping up the arming of countries which face internal unrest due to extremist, terrorist or insurgent activity, most noticeably in Pakistan, Indonesia and the Philippines. However, such states also suffer from instability at many levels and cannot guarantee the responsible deployment and use of arms.

Civilian ownership totals 80 percent

Figures show that civilians purchase more than 80 percent of the eight million new weapons manufactured every year. Approximately 59.2 percent of small arms are privately owned, while government armed forces possess 37.8 percent. Police forces are believed to possess 2.8 percent and insurgents 0.2 percent of the conventional small weapons in circulation.

"A new urgency has been created by the so-called war on terror," said Irene Khan, secretary general of Amnesty International in a statement accompanying the release of the report. "This is fuelling the proliferation of weapons rather than combating it. Many countries, including the US, have relaxed controls on sales of arms to allies known to have appalling human rights records.”

13 countries dominate trade

Figures show that over 1,000 companies in approximately 98 countries are responsible for the majority of small arms in use in the world today. Around eight million new small arms and light weapons are manufactured each year by the 13 countries which dominate the global small arms market, both import and export, which is believed to total €3.4 - €4.2 billion ($4-5 billion) every year, with approximately 80-90 percent of the trade taking part on the legal market.

While the United States continues to be the world’s number one trader, European countries have consistently made up the second largest group of global weapons sellers, especially in terms of small arms trade with developing nations.

European 'Big Four' hold majority

Britain, Germany, France and Italy - the four major West European suppliers – have collectively dominated European output for the past decade, holding about a 25.8 percent share of all arms transfer agreements with developing nations.

Emile Le Brun from the IANSA told Deutsche Welle that European Union countries regularly make up almost half of the world's total small arms export sales, totaling around $869 million in 2000, the last recorded year. Combined with non-EU countries, Europe as a whole makes up approximately $1.2 billion of global export sales which in 2000 reached totalled $2.1 billion.

Such is the concern of the European Union at the proliferation instigated by its member states, it has tried to take a positive step in introducing its own code of conduct which intends to encourage a more responsible export of arms.

While member states have signed the code, there is still much criticism that it falls short of establishing effective monitoring of sales and transfers by member states. It is also claimed that it will still be probable that arms can be exported to the regimes that would be the most likely to use them in the violation of international humanitarian law.

Slight shift in sales towards developed nations

However, countries like Germany and France have changed tack by focussing more and more on trade with developed nations, according to Anna Khakee at the Small Arms Survey in Geneva. She also told Deutsche Welle that a number of non-EU countries have been making concerted efforts to reduce their trade to war zones.

Despite this, a number of European countries continue to trade arms with regimes such as Yemen and Saudi Arabia, the main customer for weapons from Belgium, France and Spain, while Germany continues to supply Thailand and Mexico with arms, Khakee said.