WFSA Current News - June, 2005
 

June 29, 2005

Another ritual gun burning
          The Nairobi Standard in Kenya has reported that there is to be another ritual gun burning, involving 3,786 confiscated firearms, in the presence of the ballistics unit. This follows on from a similar burning of over 7,000 guns in 2003. The guns are to be melted down and sold for scrap metal.
            Estimates of illegal guns held illegally in the country run to 140,000, but as is the usual case with illegal arms holdings, the numbers are vague. The Police Operations director, David Kimaiyo, presides over the present operation. Kenya is a signatory to the Nairobi Declaration and the Nairobi Protocol for the Prevention, Control and Reduction of Small Arms and Light Weapons in the Great Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa. It is still recognized that the arms enter the country illegally through the very long, unmanned borders.
            With the police claiming to confiscate roughly a thousand illegal guns each year, the number of arms being destroyed is clearly likely to have at best only a minimal impact on criminal misuse.
            http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news.php?articleid=23756

June 24, 2005

African agreement on SALW
            An agreement has been signed with a view to strengthening controls on small arms and light weapons in Africa. The countries concerned are Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania, with Somalia expected to join in soon.
            The agreement will form the Regional Centre on Small Arms and Light Weapons in the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa (RECSA) and it will be based in the capital of Nairobi.
            The Centre is said to have as its primary concern the facilitation of information sharing between governments and non-governmental organizations in matters pertaining to trafficking in small arms. It also professes involvement with law enforcement and the creation of  "mechanisms for efficient control and management" of arms.
            Details of the approach have not yet been released.
          http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/a8d11be9a83863d65bf98692ed7816e1.htm

June 17, 2005

Nepalese support sought by anti-gun group
            The South Asian Small Arms Network – Nepal has called for a national commission to prepare a work plan regarding control of small arms. According to an article in The Rising Nepal, the organization also called for submission of an annual report to the United Nations on the status of the plan.
            The Network’s chair, Tirtha Prasad Gyawali, met with the country’s Home Minister to submit its demands.
            http://www.gorkhapatra.org.np/pageloader.php?file=2005/06/16/topstories/main6

June 9, 2005

Guatemalan call for increased gun legislation
            A group known as The Sustainable Development Education Institute in Guatemala has begun an anti-gun campaign by which it says it aims to reduce crime. Carmen Rosa de Leon, speaking on behalf of the organization, said Guatemalans need to be made aware of the need to reduce the number of firearms in the country.
            There are current estimates of the existence within Guatemala of eight times the number of unregistered guns when compared with those that are registered. At present, the Guatemalan constitution is said to guarantee gun rights to anyone over 25 years of age without a criminal record.


June 7, 2005

Ugandan-Kenyan agreement on arms smuggling
            A meeting of Ugandan and Kenyan officials has led to an agreement between the two nations aimed at reducing the smuggling of illicit small arms.
            The North Rift districts of Kenya and the north-eastern part of Uganda have been well known to provide a corridor for the movement of illegal arms.
            Agreement was reached to mount a joint committee, connecting with the disarmament authorities in both of the countries.
            The meeting said that the action should be taken further in the region, especially considering that cattle stealing and arms smuggling are believed to go together and also affect Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan.             Sudan is also the continuing site of genocidal activity.

June 7, 2005

Elephant hunting reintroduced in Zambia
           There have been two recent articles about the reintroduction of elephant hunting in Zambia. The population of elephants in Zambia is roughly 25,000, and a submission to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species to be able to take twenty animals has been approved.
            The Minister for Tourism, Patrick Kalifungwa, has issued a statement saying the government's reintroduction of elephant hunting is aimed at benefiting Zambians.
            Illegal timber harvesting and charcoal making, along with deforestation and other environmental degradation, have combined to diminish food production and exacerbate poverty. The present initiative will have no harmful impact on the country’s elephant population, but will promote sustainable numbers in two specified management areas. At the same time, there will be increased monitoring to reduce illegal killing of elephants in the areas. Hunting licences will be obtained through existing safari businesses, and at the conclusion of the hunting, certificates of ownership will list the details of the animals, to assist close monitoring of both the hunting activity and the handling of trophies.
            The licensed hunting of elephants has been banned in Zambia since 1982. With this current initiative, however, the Zambia Wildlife Authority will be receiving the hunting concession fees, while revenue extracted from animal fees is to be shared equally between the Authority and the local communities, for the particular benefit of the people living there. In addition, the meat from the hunted animals will go directly to the local communities for consumption.
            Before the bans took place in 1982, hunting revenue went into the central government treasury. However, it has now been specifically acknowledged by the Tourism Minister that elephant eco-tourism has limitations which have not assisted the species to its potential in the same way that sustainable hunting can.                
            http://environment.zambezitimes.com/fulltxt.php?id_news=2829
            http://environment.zambezitimes.com/fulltxt.php?id_news=2840

June 3, 2005

California decides to register bullets
            A proposal has passed in the Californian Senate to require arms manufacturers to ensure that all bullets and cartridges are branded individually with serial numbers.
            One of the proposals which has just been approved by the Senate would apply from 2007. Every bullet sold in California will need an identification number which police could in theory trace to the outlet where the ammunition was sold.
            Senator Joe Dunn, who sponsored the bill, SB 357, likened the task to putting individualized numbers on cartons of food, and claimed it will bring little extra cost. In contrast, the Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Duncan Hunter, is on the record as being "strongly opposed to this proposal because of the harmful impact it will have on the manufacturers of ammunition used by our nation's armed services and law enforcement agencies."
            Billions of rounds of ammunition are made annually.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-legis3jun03,0,2107496.story?page=1&coll=la-headlines-california

June 1, 2005

SALW conference in Liberia
            A three-day workshop on the danger of small arms has been held for 50 rural leaders, including traditional chiefs, youth and women leaders, local government officials and officers of the Namibian contingent United Nations Mission in Liberia. The setting was Grand Cape Mount County, and the event was sponsored by the National Endowment for Democracy (NDI).
            Liberia has had a history of unrest extending over more than a decade.
            The Executive Director of the Center for Peace Education and Democracy, Robert G. Miller, called for rural dwellers to surrender hidden arms, and he credited disarmament of warring factions with bringing relative levels of peace to the region. He also called on locals "to denounce the use of guns and violence for political power".
            The County Commander of the Liberia National Police, Deputy Inspector Ibraham Sirleaf, called on the government to transfer the responsibility for handgun registration from the Special Security Services to the police, for "proper supervision and control".
            http://allafrica.com/stories/200506010947.html