WFSA Current News - November,  2002

November 22, 2002

Arms ban in Liberia supported by Amnesty International
            The Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) are a communication arm of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
            In a report today, IRIN indicated that Amnesty International has supported the continuation of a ban on the sale of arms and ammunition to Liberia. The UN Security Council accused the government forces there of committing gross violations of human rights, including rape, arbitrary arrest, torture and unjustified executions. However, similar accusations have also been levelled at the opposition forces.
            So volatile is the region that fears are held for the stability of neighbouring Guinea and Sierra Leone.
            In an attempt to safeguard civilians, Amnesty called for scrutiny to be applied to the country’s timber industry as a possible source of funding for illegal arms. Military transfers to both sides in the conflict must be stopped, Amnesty says, to ensure the protection of human rights. No mention is made of self defence in the article.
            The full report may be found at: http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=31064&SelectRegion=West_Africa&SelectCountry=LIBERIA

 
November 12, 2002

Deer overabundant in the US
            The New York Times today produced an excellent, probing article by Andrew Revkin that well describes the modern problems created by superabundance of an animal species.
            Much hunting of a century ago was not managed according to seasonal and other breeding requirements, nor was the importance of habitat understood the way it is now. As a result, hunting pressure was often damaging to species, and indeed in many countries there were birds and animals that became extinct while still recognized and actively hunted as quarry.
            Today, that has changed, and seasonal hunting means populations are carefully managed throughout the developed world. However, a new problem is arising. The principles of preserving and augmenting species are well understood. Healthy habitat is the key to their welfare. Now, in the changing world, as environmental management is improving, some species are coming back with vigour never shown before. The white-tailed deer is now such a success story in North America that it is creating severe problems. Deer are involved in over one million motor vehicular accidents annually in which about a hundred people are killed.
            Predation is only a fraction of what it used to be. Urbanization brings favourable feed conditions, and deer in many states are now destroying habitat to such an extent that the ecology is being altered. If this continues, numerous species, and not just the deer, must suffer. State by state, different plant species are under considerable and rising pressure.
            Hunting is thought by many ecologists to be by far the best option in controlling deer populations, but there are also new difficulties surfacing in this. Modern urban dwellers are increasingly dissociating from the rural way of life, and there may not be enough hunters to go around. And so well-educated have hunters become over the decades that they are not as prepared as they might be to change their ways in answer to the times. Exhorted for generations to shoot only bucks, in many places they may now need to turn their attention to does as well.
            At the same time, increased attention is being focused on Chronic Wasting Disease. If hunting diminishes as a result of this, it will be at a time when it can least be afforded. Experience with many species worldwide indicates that when animals are in gross oversupply, they become far more susceptible to disease of all kinds, creating a further complication.
            Clearly the longstanding American conservation approach, using hunters’ money for maintenance of habitat, has worked very effectively over the decades in bringing the white-tailed deer back from near extinction. Equally obviously, the broader community will need to understand the importance of heavily increased wildlife harvesting on a needs basis, with the deer an urgent case in point.

November 8, 2002

Increasing Russian pistol smuggling
            The number of Russian Makarov pistols seized by Japanese authorities in 2001 was three times the number collected in 2000, according to a report today in the Yomiuri Shimbun. It is suggested that the Russian mafia may be behind the criminal activity. The full story is available at http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20021108wo23.htm .
            Senior officials from both the Russian Federal Security Service and the Japanese National Police Agency are expected to confer on the matter, with the aim of closing down the illegal trade. There are vast numbers of illegal military handguns that have been smuggled out of storage facilities in numerous countries over the last decades. They make their way into criminal hands and are used as hard currency. Some indication of the size of the pool of illegal guns available for the Russian underworld to draw on is given in the WFSA Current News item of October 7, 2002.

November 7, 2002

Gun crime rising in Scotland
          Once again the link between drug crime and illegal gun use is in the news.
           In a report from the BBC today, Scottish trends have been released discussing shootings resulting in murder or serious wounding. Said to be certain to reach “record levels” this year, the illegal gun abuse reflects feuding over drug-selling territory, especially in Glasgow. Legislation will be introduced allowing the authorities to confiscate the assets of convicted drug dealers.
          Gangs involved in drug dealing were responsible for the trebling of serious shootings in 2001. However, the numbers are expected to rise just as steeply again, in 2002, to a further all-time high. Illegal firearms are widely available, despite the fact that Scotland, like England, now has a total handgun ban.
          The daily news again shows the ineffectiveness of gun bans as a means of bringing down crime rates.