African ministers meet to give legal teeth to fight against small arms

NAIROBI, April 20 (AFP) — Ministers from Africa’s Great Lakes and Horn of Africa regions on Tuesday finalised amendments on a protocol giving legal muscle to their commitments to stemming an alarming proliferation of small and light weapons.

A Kenyan foreign ministry official told AFP that the regions’ 11 states would sign the Nairobi Protocol for the Prevention, Control and Reduction of Small Arms and Light Weapons in Nairobi and a ministerial declaration on the same issue on Wednesday.

“They planned to sign the protocol today (Tuesday), but it has been delayed by amendments done to the text, but they have now been finalised,” said the ministry’s spokeswoman Monica Omoro.

Once ratified, the protocol will oblige signatories — Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, the Seychelles, Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania — to take concrete action, including passing legislation, to back up earlier more abstract pledges.

Kenyan Foreign Minister Kalonzo Musyoka told the ministers in Nairobi that most small arms flow freely amid conflicts that have beset the region.

“The defining characteristic of such conflict is the widespread death and suffering resulting from small arms and light weepons, which are readily obtained legally and illicitly.

“These type of arms are easily mastered by untrained civil combatants, even child soldiers as we have witnessesed in our own subregion, as opposed to major conventional weapons traditionally associated with tanks, aircrafts and warships,” he said.

Even in countries without armed conflict, such as Kenya, small arms in the hands of criminals pose a serious threat to security.

Legislation envisaged in the protocol provides for the outlawing of those engaged in the illicit manufacture, trafficking, possession and falsifying or altering the markings of small arms and light weapons, according to the draft protocol.

In 2001, the United Nations adopted a Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons, which gave leeway for countries to explore ways to combat the problem.