OSCE worried about small arms trafficking by air
22 March 2007 | 00:13 |
FOCUS News Agency
http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?id=n108443
VIENNA. Northern hemisphere countries discussed Wednesday in Vienna ways to fight the illicit trafficking by air of small arms and light weapons that sustain civil wars, drug and diamond trafficking and terrorism, particularly in Africa.
Experts, air transportation representatives and international organisations attended a special meeting initiated by France and Belgium at the start of a two-day forum of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
"The topic of illicit trafficking of small arms and light weapons by air is new on the international security agenda, and the OSCE aspires to play a role in this field," said forum chairman Spyros Attas.
According to United Nations figures, some 600 million illicit small arms and light weapons (SALW) -- including machine guns and shoulder-launched missiles, also known as manpads -- have caused about four million deaths in 47 conflicts since 1990, French Ambassador Eric Lebedel told a press conference in Vienna.
"Military supplies for most of today's conflicts are typically small arms, light weapons and related ammunition, and... in most cases they are illegally transported by air to conflict regions around the globe, especially to Africa," the OSCE noted in a statement.
Using air cargo with falsified flight manifestos rather than sea cargo is a more discreet way to carry these weapons to remote locations, such as nearly-landlocked Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
"Africa is currently the main destination for flows of SALW, which can transit from Liberia and Sierra Leone to Ivory Coast and Eritrea" depending on the conflict, Lebedel told AFP.
But these weapons could also easily make their way to failed states in the Caucasus or the Balkans, thus posing a threat to many of the OSCE's 56 member states, he said.
"Most weapons in Eastern and Central Africa come from OSCE countries through illegal means... they are also sold from old stockpiles by corrupt officials," Belgian MP and former Defence Minister Francois-Xavier de Donnaa pointed out.
The conference's organisers said they did not want to "stigmatise" those countries from which SALW originate, but they admitted these often included former Soviet states.
Transdniestr, a small breakaway region in Moldova, has often been found to be a source of various kinds of trafficking, said one source who refused to be named.
"The illicit trade in SALW is interconnected with the spread of terrorism, regional conflicts, failing states and organized crime," OSCE Secretary General Marc Perrin de Brichambaut said in his opening remarks.
"In order to tackle this issue, we need to see a close involvement of government officials from export and import control departments, customs and defence, as well as the private sector and international organizations," he added.
Indeed, the traffic of small arms by air often involves government officials and a number of air cargo companies.
Abdoulaye Cissoko, a member of a team of experts monitoring the UN arms embargo on DRC, pointed to the difficulty in tracking flights carrying illicit weapons.
"These flights never go directly to their destination" but make several landings on the way "to cover their tracks" and often operate by night, he told the conference.
"Illicit transfers exploit weaknesses in inspection mechanisms and cargo checks by falsifying flight documents," he said, condemning the "lack of information exchange regarding air movement at an international level" and weak air traffic controls.
Cargo companies, including in Rwanda, Bulgaria, Serbia and Kyrgystan are often involved in arms trafficking, he said.
Participants at the conference, which include the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), also discussed information exchanges and import and export legislation in the air transport sector.
