One of the legacies of conflict in Southern Africa and other regions of the world is the glut of light weapons and small arms. These are being transported illegally across borders, where they are used to generate political instability and for criminal purposes in many cities, towns and rural areas. Under these circumstances, democratisation programmes (which include demobilisation, disarmament and policing) are being jeopardised to the point that most people feel the need to acquire weapons for self-defence, thus consolidating the illegal markets that thrive on such instability, chaos and fear. In consequence, communities have abandoned their traditional, negotiated mechanisms of conflict resolution and conflict management, seeking instead to resolve violent situations with equally violent solutions. Although in its infancy, a culture of violence has begun to emerge in the region of Southern Africa, threatening democracy and development as a result. This is inevitable because an increased availability of unregulated and uncontrolled light weapons in a national society erodes its value system and changes its individuals, making them more insecure – not less – and more violent.

The connection between despair, violence and intolerance and the increased availability of small arms is, and will continue to become, ever more apparent in the daily lives of populations. And since this connection is a product of the unholy alliance between conflict, international crime, black markets and guns, the international community will have no choice other than to accept that the control and regulation of trafficking in light weapons has become a matter of paramount concern.

With this context in mind, the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in South Africa has developed its Arms Management Programme (AMP) which aims to study the dynamics of the illegal trade in small arms in Southern Africa. In the course of this study, the AMP will demonstrate the correlation between an increased availability of small arms and the emergence of a culture of violence in transit and end-user societies. The countries in the geographic region chosen manifest a number of similarities that permit their linkage for the purpose of this study. All the countries are either victims of the violence accompanying small arms proliferation or act as transit points from where weapons are distributed further afield. Likewise, all have been affected, to a greater or lesser extent, by porous borders which connect them to countries that have accumulated a massive surplus of light weapons as a result of decades of internal strife and ill-managed disarmament operations during multinational peace processes (i.e., Angola, Mozambique). Finally, all countries in the study are members of the same regional and sub-regional organisations, namely the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and its Interstate Defence and Security Committee (ISDSC).

The AMP, therefore, seeks to discover what the nature of the small arms proliferation problem in each of these countries is; how increased availability of weapons affects the societies; and what structures within existing regional groupings could be utilised to diminish the flow and effects of light weapons proliferation in Southern Africa. As such, it has a series of components of which the most important are field research; mapping and surveying of rural and urban communities to discover the extent of illegal small arms possession; generating an increase in public awareness related to small arms proliferation in Southern Africa; research and writing; policy formulation and recommendations for proposing viable mechanisms for both the regional control of weapons flows and the reversal of a culture of violence at local level; and the facilitation of meetings to allow for interactions between inter-agency officials and NGOs for the discussion of a co-ordinated approach to an effective strategy for the control of this scourge.

Since this programme brings applied research to the field of light weapons control, it does not stop at field research and writing. Two further components deal with proposing specific recommendations for application at national inter-agency level, at regional organisation level and at local community level.

National: The channel for implementing the first type of recommendations is a set of workshops and conferences designed as inter-agency discussions between point persons dealing with weapons control at national level. This includes government officials, parliamentarians, the media and committed NGOs.

Regional: To implement the second type of recommendations, the programme will work on another set of workshops and conferences designed as inter-agency discussions between point persons dealing with weapons control at regional levels (OAU, SADC, ISDSC, Southern African Police Chiefs Co-operation Organisation (SARPCCO)), across regions (L’ANAD); and internationally (the UN, EU and Organisation of American States).

These two sets of actions permit transparency in the discussion and analysis of problem areas that affect effective policing of illegal small arms trafficking through the territory of SADC member states, which is a major area of concern in the proliferation of light weapons in these countries. Focal points here include legislation for the licensing of weapons; status of border controls for the detection of the transit and import of illegal weapons; and managing the grey area between legal and illegal weapons moving in and through the countries. Special attention is given to emerging problem areas with regard to the increased proliferation of weapons (i.e., conflict status, the role of transnational criminal organisations trading in arms in Africa, surfacing ethnic and political strife in SADC member states) and these are discussed to assist in the formulation of preventative controls to reduce likely proliferation. Other more technical discussion areas take into account problems associated with the destruction of existing surplus stocks of official legal weapons (mostly state owned); problems associated with collection and destruction of weapons confiscated by the police and stored in police stations; and problems associated with keeping central records and/or a registry of arms in the Southern African region.

In these components of the programme, researchers attempt to raise awareness of the fact that the excessive and destabilising accumulation, circulation, and proliferation of small arms in Southern Africa touches upon both the legal and illegal sides of the trade in arms. There is also recognition that the legal trade in arms quickly may become illegal as there are not sufficient control mechanisms to stop this from happening. The solution to this problem is to design and implement a set of national and regional co-operation and co-ordination structures to ensure that: 1) legal weapons stay legal and under responsible management and control; 2) illegal weapons are detected and reduced; and 3) the fine line separating legal and illegal is controlled. These objectives are regional, national and local in character. In consequence, enabling mechanisms must be created that will facilitate the implementation of control and reduction recommendations. In this formulation it is important to differentiate between countries and localities which serve as supply elements (home-made weapons, trading centres for the sale of guns, weapons producers, holders of large stocks of surplus weapons, etc.), transit areas (as the bought weapons move across borders to a third destination) and end-user points.

It is vital to understand that what is most needed for solving the problem of small arms proliferation and putting a stop to illicit arms trafficking in Southern Africa is the accessibility of information and the creation of enabling mechanisms for co-ordinated action. Thus, what is fundamental in this formulation is the emphasis on information gathering and sharing between agencies; public awareness (including parliamentary committees); and an understanding of the limitations provided by the budget, the environment and the resource problem associated with control.

For these reasons, the AMP at the ISS will continue to assist in fostering the understanding of, and discussions on, these issues by undertaking field research (including survey and mapping of supply, transit and end-use points for small arms in Southern Africa); research, writing and dissemination of policy papers; research and policy recommendations into legislation, licensing of civilian-owned firearms and destruction of surplus weapons in Southern Africa; and the facilitation of national and regional interactions for the effective implementation of plans for illict weapons at national levels within SADC member states, and for the co-ordination of control mechanisms at regional level.

New NGO-governmental interactions need to be established in the pursuit of goals directed at stopping illicit arms trafficking and encouraging disarmament world-wide. The AMP has applied the present methodology to ensure simultaneous concentration on particular elements: primary field research, transparency and sharing of information collected, reponsible writing of recommendations for action at regional and local levels, and faciliation of discussion at interdepartmental and international levels of ways in which to enhance exisiting mechanisms for rapid control. At the same time, fully understanding the relationship between development and security, the programme interprets this in terms of local education and regional control. It has identified the link between increased availability of small arms and the emergence of a culture of violence through field research and surveys of rural and urban environments of Africa. Part of the programme’s mandate, therefore, is to suggest solutions, both to the regional control of arms trafficking and the local reversal of a culture of violence among the people in source, transit and end-user societies. In 1998-99 it is undertaking an experiment aimed at working with local communities to enlist their voluntary participation in managing the weapons they possess in a more responsible manner, as a preliminary step to surrendering or licensing them. The Action Plan will be implemented by key role players of the community concerned, supported by local, provincial and national authorities. The progamme will faciliate the co-ordination of the Action Plan among role players, monitor progress and interpret results of a four-month period.

Each Blueprint for an Action Plan (BAP), structured specifically for the target locality (as indicated in tailored surveys and structured interpretation of them), would provide information and recommendations on the following issues: