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25th August, 2009
Insecurity In W. Africa Blamed On Abundance Of Arms
The Minister of the Interior, Cletus Avoka, has blamed the untold suffering and insecurity in West Africa on the uncontrolled proliferation of small arms and light weapons (SAWL) in Ghana and other countries in the sub-region.
He said the numerous armed robberies, murders, rapes, armed-violence, local conflicts, land and chieftaincy disputes were all fuelled by the easy access to illicit weapons by the perpetrators of those crimes.
That situation, he said, had stimulated a number of national responses such as the formation of the Ghana National Commission on Small Arms (GNACSA), the signing of international and sub-regional protocols and conventions and improving the capacities of the various security agencies in an effort to curtail the menace.
The Interior Minister said this yesterday when he opened a two-day ECOWAS Small Arms Control Programme (ECOSAP) review and planning meeting for national commissions on SALW currently underway in Accra, with the participants from Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The meeting seeks to stimulate discussions towards identifying and conceptualising projects on armed violence reduction aimed at impacting local communities and grassroots populations in the framework of the programme’s annual work plan.
It was under the theme, ‘Capacity Building for Better Control of Arms’.
Mr Avoka said the UNDP had been of enormous help to the government with the creation of Firearms Bureaux in six regional Police Headquarters in Cape Coast, Kumasi, Sunyani, Takoradi, Tamale and Accra.
Those facilities, he said, had been equipped with computers with pre-installed arms tracking software to monitor and control small arms.
He said the government was taking steps to ratify the ECOWAS Convention and the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
The president of the West African Action Network on Small Arms (WAANSA), a civil society organisation committed to the fight against SALW, Baffour D. Amoa, called for an arms trade treaty to establish a set of basic rules to regulate the international transfer of conventional arms.
The treaty will be expected to set out common minimum standards for international arms transfer, and a workable operative mechanism for its application.
The treaty, Mr Amoa said would not preclude the establishment of stronger national or regional controls.
He said the idea of a treaty was based on the principle that arms exporters and importers had the responsibility to ensure that they did not provide weapons that would be used in serious violation of international law.
He said about 95 per cent of Kalashnikov rifles, the most common weapons used in most conflicts in Africa, were imported from abroad.
He said the numerous armed robberies, murders, rapes, armed-violence, local conflicts, land and chieftaincy disputes were all fuelled by the easy access to illicit weapons by the perpetrators of those crimes.
That situation, he said, had stimulated a number of national responses such as the formation of the Ghana National Commission on Small Arms (GNACSA), the signing of international and sub-regional protocols and conventions and improving the capacities of the various security agencies in an effort to curtail the menace.
The Interior Minister said this yesterday when he opened a two-day ECOWAS Small Arms Control Programme (ECOSAP) review and planning meeting for national commissions on SALW currently underway in Accra, with the participants from Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
The meeting seeks to stimulate discussions towards identifying and conceptualising projects on armed violence reduction aimed at impacting local communities and grassroots populations in the framework of the programme’s annual work plan.
It was under the theme, ‘Capacity Building for Better Control of Arms’.
Mr Avoka said the UNDP had been of enormous help to the government with the creation of Firearms Bureaux in six regional Police Headquarters in Cape Coast, Kumasi, Sunyani, Takoradi, Tamale and Accra.
Those facilities, he said, had been equipped with computers with pre-installed arms tracking software to monitor and control small arms.
He said the government was taking steps to ratify the ECOWAS Convention and the Convention on Cluster Munitions.
The president of the West African Action Network on Small Arms (WAANSA), a civil society organisation committed to the fight against SALW, Baffour D. Amoa, called for an arms trade treaty to establish a set of basic rules to regulate the international transfer of conventional arms.
The treaty will be expected to set out common minimum standards for international arms transfer, and a workable operative mechanism for its application.
The treaty, Mr Amoa said would not preclude the establishment of stronger national or regional controls.
He said the idea of a treaty was based on the principle that arms exporters and importers had the responsibility to ensure that they did not provide weapons that would be used in serious violation of international law.
He said about 95 per cent of Kalashnikov rifles, the most common weapons used in most conflicts in Africa, were imported from abroad.
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