EDITORIAL

On 1 March 1999 the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, better known as the Ottawa Treaty, entered into force. This treaty represents several important firsts, including a first ban on anti-personnel landmines, a weapon used in most conflicts. The Convention requires its signatories to destroy stockpiles within four years and mines already in the ground within ten years. By 8 March 1999, 42 African countries had signed the Convention and sixteen have ratified it. The attention is now shifting to the larger problem of the unchecked proliferation of small arms and light weapons and how these, too, can be controlled.

Light weapons remain in conflict areas and follow new wars around Africa. In countries that are unstable, embroiled in conflict or involved in post-conflict transition processes, the presence of poorly controlled and easily available weapons pose a major threat to stability. There is a close relationship between peace and security, and economic, social and political development in Africa. Both are threatened by the abundance of light weapons and illicit arms trafficking. Although these weapons are not the cause of conflicts and criminal activities, their wide availability, accumulation and proliferation may escalate conflicts; undermine peace agreements; intensify violence and impact on crime levels; impede economic and social development; and disrupt social stability, democracy and good governance.

The longest term impact of these weapons is on development. Landmines restrict peoples’ access to water and arable land, while the threat of being caught up in fighting prompts people to leave their homes and move to other parts of the country or to neighbouring countries. When, or even if, these people return, they must often restart their lives and rebuild what they have lost.

Another facet of light weapons, and especially small arms, is their role in the perpetration of crime. In South Africa, the use of weapons in violent crime continues to grow. Murder and car hijacking are the two types of crime in which guns are most likely to be used, but they are also used in assaults, burglaries and bank robberies.

The challenge of controlling light weapons is perhaps greater than that of larger conventional weapons systems, as the solutions require control over both legal and illegal weapons (i.e. legal arms transfers and the illicit smuggling of weapons) and involve a wide range of actors including development and humanitarian organisations, governments and non-governmental organisations. An additional challenge to policy makers is that light weapons are often already present in current or potential conflict zones, a legacy of past wars. Thus, the challenge is not only to devise policy that will address supply aspects, but that will also attend to internal demand issues and the circumvention of government control by the movement of weapons in small batches across borders and regions.

Internationally, the extent of this problem is increasingly recognised. Solutions must be tried and, regardless of their success or failure, must be evaluated and revised for use elsewhere. Immediate steps must be taken in conjunction with initiatives of local communities, governments and external organisations, including the United Nations and its agencies. Only through sustained, co-ordinated action will the scourge of light weapons be controlled and hopefully, removed.