Fighting violence: Small weapons must be controlled effectively

1. Denationalising armed conflicts
 

In his speech at the United Nations Millennium Summit, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated that every year the death toll from so-called small arms exceeds the toll of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. For us today, terror has gained a new brutal relevance—following the attacks of 11 September and their consequences. For many people in other regions of the world, however, terror has long been an everyday experience. Only in exceptional cases are the “new wars” fought by military combat units. Usually they involve groups and networks of fighters which are not clearly identifiable. These new types of warfare and terror are generally conducted using small arms. The Kalashnikow assault rifle has thereby become a symbol of warfare today. The existence of small arms adds to the vicious circle of under-development, conflict and violence. Small weapons and under-development increase the probability, the intensity and the duration of armed conflicts; and long-term conflicts in turn undermine long-term social and economic development, and create new demand for small weapons.

The denationalisation of violence became visible in many conflict regions following the end of East-West confrontation. The disappearance of the bipolar system (and the sponsoring which it entailed) has shifted the economic basis of (local and regional) conflicts. Today non-state actors secure their financial basis by obtaining access to valuable raw materials, by kidnappings or drugtrafficking. This leads to a disastrous mixture of ideological, ethnical, religious or criminal motives. In many countries, gangs of plunderers under the command of a ‘warlord’ control large territories—or even parts of the national economy. In many cases, the legitimate state authorities can no longer enforce their monopoly of violence and guarantee security; they are also increasingly unable to perform other basic tasks of the state (for example in the field of education and health).

2. Easy availability of small arms

According to the UN definition, small arms are all weapons which can be carried, transported and operated by one or two people. They are usually weapons which are cheap (for example in Angola, a rifle can be bought for a sack of rice), which are durable, easy to transport and easy to operate and to hide, and which confer direct power. Currently there are approximately 500 million small arms in circulation worldwide.

The problem of so-called ‘child soldiers’ is directly related to the massive proliferation of small arms Because small arms are easy to operate, they make it possible for children and adolescents to participate actively in armed conflicts. Approximately 300,000 children are currently being exploited as child soldiers worldwide— particularly in civil wars. Many of them have been compulsorily recruited. Most recruits are drafted between the age of 15 and 18 years, but current figures show that more and more adolescents under 15 years of age—and even children under ten—are being forced into military service. Controls and restrictions on small arms are therefore also necessary measures to effectively protect child rights.

We should like to emphasise that roughly 85% of these weapons are produced by the five countries which are Permanent Members of the UN Security Council. This problem has a North-South dimension since the majority of the small arms are produced in the First World, whilst the majority of recipients live in the Third World. This is due first and foremost to the way in which legal trade in small arms is conducted: 56% of the world’s small arms belong to civilians; together with surplus weapons from the Cold War era and decommissioned weapons from armies, these weapons finally end up on the black market and in the hands of guerrilla groups, terrorist gangs and dictatorial regimes. From here they often wander from one conflict to the next.

3. Preventing development

Wars, violence and high expenditure on weapons procurement destroy successful development. The absence of controls on small weapons prevents the implementation of projects in the field of development and human rights as whole groups of the population are harassed and intimidated with the help of such weapons.

The arming of state security forces (the police and military) to maintain order within and between states is considered legitimate. We are not therefore demanding the general eradication of small arms, but their strict regulation around the world.

Here special significance must be attached to controlling deliveries of weapons and to the registration of weapons, both on the part of the supplier as well as the recipient. In many cases, Developing Countries lack the means (particularly adequate and efficient police, customs and judiciary capacities) to effectively control the entry of weapons across their borders. They do not have the capacity to register weapons and to ensure safe storage. What is needed here is assistance and in particular support within the framework of international co-operation. The control and containment of small arms are of key importance if efforts towards peace and development are to have a chance. Every effort must therefore be made, both nationally and internationally, to limit the legal possession of small arms in order to curb the illegal availability of such weapons.

4. National and international approaches

In view of the terrible effects of the abuse of small arms, the Plenary Session of the Central Committee of German Catholics welcomes the fact:

- that various states introduced a number of important international initiatives to limit arms exports to Africa in the run-up to the UN Conference on Small Arms in New York in July 2001;

- that the international community of states dealt at the highest level with these weapons and their devastating effects, particularly on the civilian population, at the first international Conference on Small Arms in New York from 9–20 July 2001;

- that this conference agreed on a first programme of action and a follow-up conference in 2006;

- that the new directives on arms exports issued by both the German Federal Government as well as the European Union embody criteria concerning the observation of human rights and sustained development;

- at the Federal Ministry of Defence has scrapped a large number of small arms in Germany in recent years and has announced that the G 3 rifles which are due to be taken out of service will also be scrapped;

- that the Federal Government in its recently approved “Programme of Action 2015: The Federal Government’s Contribution to Halving Poverty Worldwide” strongly advocates restricting the availability of small arms and promises partner countries support in their efforts to better control and destroy small arms.

5. Demands

Further initiatives are needed in order to limit the misuse of small arms effectively:

- We note with great concern that Germany too is contributing to exacerbating the problem of small arms by producing and exporting small arms which can be used for military purposes, particularly ammunition, and especially by selling licences, construction plans, machine tools and whole arms factories. We therefore demand nationally and internationally binding mechanisms enabling controls on the movement of weapons. This must also apply to privately owned weapons.

- We urge that weapons collection and buy-back programmes should be conducted within the framework of international co-operation in areas of violent conflict. Experiences in Bosnia and Herzegovina and, most recently, in Macedonia show that there is an opportunity for such campaigns, particularly in post-conflict situations. This makes a combination of development co-operation and disarmament projects all the more important.

- Furthermore, the EU Commission and the Member States should finally introduce practical measures to implement the decision of the Council of EU Development Ministers of May 1999, which foresees support for Developing Countries in controlling and disposing of small arms.

- We urge that surplus stocks of legal small arms should not be sold to private dealers or sold abroad, but should be destroyed. We call upon the Federal Government to renounce all sales of surplus stocks and to thus give the necessary political signal on the way to the UN follow-up conference in 2006. Furthermore, the EU must also ensure within the framework of EU Eastern enlargement that those states in Central and Eastern Europe which wish to accede to the EU put a stop to the transfer of small arms at a national level.

- We urge that measures should also be taken to ensure precise controls on and the destruction of ammunition instead of intensifying the problem by selling off surplus production and old stocks of weapons.

- Many perpetrators of armed violence finance their wars by trading in certain products (e.g. diamonds, drugs). We therefore demand that the Federal Government, together with its EU partners, introduces economic measures to make the profits of war and thus the continuation of armed conflicts appear less attractive. This also means publishing all available information, including details of trading locations and partners, so that such trade can be effectively stopped. We call for participation in campaigns which aim to prevent the financing of civil wars.

6. Development needs peace - peace needs justice

The availability and use of small arms has now reached such proportions that their effects equal those of weapons of mass destruction. Wherever they are used as a means of arbitrary violence to terrorise the population, development is made impossible. We therefore call upon the Catholic charities and organisations to address this question, to seek exchanges with their partners abroad and with other social forces at home, and to thus contribute towards keeping the initiatives needed to deal with this task on the political agenda.

What we need now are initiatives by the Catholic organisations to put into practice the pastoral word of “Just Peace”, taking into consideration the problem of small arms. In dialogues with the churches in the South, we must ascertain what is expected of us as churches in the North and what we can do to effectively contain the plague of small arms. We should listen to and support local initiatives, particularly church initiatives. The Central Committee calls upon the church organisations to take this into account in their work.

Our commitment is guided by the vision of a just peace: “ A world that does not provide the majority of people with the basic needs of a humane life is not viable. Even when there are no wars, such a world is still full of violence. It follows that justice creates peace.” (Just Peace, 59)

Approved by the Plenary Session on 23 November 2001.