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Appendix 3
Southern African Initiatives
DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
DEPARTEMENT VAN BUITELANDSE SAKE
FAX MESSAGE
TO: MS V GAMBA
ISS
FAX NO: (012) 46-0998
FROM: MARK REYNHARDT (AA363)
DEPARTMENT OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
NATIONAL CONTACT POINT
FAX NO: 351-0495
DATE: 01091999
STATUS: FOR YOUR ATTENTION
1. The meeting held at the ISS on 01091999 refers. Please find transmitted for your attention the SADC Council decisions as promised.
OVERVIEW OF SADC COUNCIL DECISIONS: 13-14 AUGUST 1999: PREVENTION AND COMBATING OF ILLICIT TRAFFICKING IN SMALL ARMS AND RELATED CRIMES.
The Council noted that conflicts in the SADC region over many years has led to a proliferation of arms, including light weapons. This has in turn contributed to an increase in criminal activities such as armed robberies and illicit trafficking in small arms.
Council noted the various arrangements for combating illicit arms trafficking and cross border crime. These include the Regional Agreement for Cooperation and Law Enforcement and the establishment of the Southern African Regional Police Cooperation (SARPCCO).
Council noted that these developments would require a well coordinated framework in SADC. A developmental dimension to the problem was required over and above a focus on law enforcement.
It was further agreed that small arms was a simple means for promoting crime. SADC needed to combine regional energies and resources to prevent resorting to small arms as a means of survival.
Bearing in mind the above the following steps were approved by Council:
– SADC should commit itself to the effective combating of armed transborder crime and the reduction and control of the flow of illicit arms.
– SADC should establish a regional policy for control of small arms and light weapons. SARPCCO should be appointed as the implementation agency of the SADC policy on small arms and cross border crime prevention. The Ministries responsible for Law and Order or Safety should be the SADC National Focal Points on the issues of prevention and combating of small arms and related crimes.
– A working group comprising of; Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland (CHAIR), Zambia, Zimbabwe, the Secretariat and SARPCCO should be appointed to work out the SADC policy on Small arms and develop a programme for the implementation at regional level. Other member states wishing to join the working group may do so.
SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE SERVICE
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REF/VERW:
DATE/DATUM: 1999-08-02
To Institute for Security Studies For attention Ms Virginia Gamba
Aan Pretoria Vir aandag
Fax No (012) 460-998 Dealt with by Dr PC Jacobs
Faks No Gehanteer Chief Manager: Legal
deur Component
0838258038
Sheets 3
Bladsye
Subject
Onderwerp FIREARMS WORKSHOP: SWAZILAND
MESSAGE/BOODSKAP
Dear Ms Gamba
Thank you and the Institute, once again for facilitating the above Workshop on 26 July 1999, in Swaziland.
The manner in which the Workshop was presented was excellent and I regard it is extremely successful. I am confident that the aims of the Workshop has been attained, namely to evoke interest in the UN Protocol on Firearms and to increase participation in the drafting process. The views obtained from the region will, although it cannot be relayed as “official” regional views, no doubt assist the next South African delegation to Vienna in presenting a proper input to the Ad Hoc Committee.
Furthermore:
- The Draft Declaration on Firearms was adopted by the Ministers responsible for policing in the region, that is South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, Angola, Malawi, Tanzania, Lesotho, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. A copy of the Declaration, as adopted, is attached for your information.
- It was approved that SARPCCO collaborates with the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) on matters relating to the proliferation of firearms in the region.
I accept that you will be informed officially by SARPCCO of the developments.
With kind regards
CHIEF MANAGER: LEGAL COMPONENT : DETECTIVE SERVICE
DR PC JACOBS
SARPCCO DECLARATION ON SMALL ARMS1
Illegal small arms2 and especially the illegal firearms3 most commonly used in the perpetration of crime, contribute to the high levels of instability, extended conflict, violence and social dislocation evident in Southern Africa and the African continent as a whole.
Aware of the urgent need to prevent, combat and eradicate the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in firearms, ammunition, explosives and other related materials, and owing to the harmful effects of those activities on the security of each state and the region as a whole, and the danger they pose to the well-being of people in the region, their social and economic development and their right to live in peace, the Ministers responsible for policing in the region are concerned about these weapons and the effect they are having in the region. The Ministers have accordingly agreed to co-operate towards improving controls over small arms.
The Ministers also recognise the work of the United Nations, through its Group of Experts on Small Arms and the Draft Protocol Against Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition and other Related Materials, supplementary to the Convention Against Transnational Organised Crime; the European Union through its Programs of Action on Arms Trafficking and its December 1998 Joint Action Against the Spread of Small Arms and Light Weapons; and the Organisation of American States, through its Convention against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives and Other Related Materials and its Model Regulations for the Control of the International Movement of Firearms, on small arms and illicit trafficking thereof;
The Ministers have therefore agreed to pursue, within the context of Southern Africa, those steps which may be taken to combat small arms trafficking in the region. Among those issues which will be considered are prohibitions on civilian possession of automatic and military weapons; co-ordination of procedures for the import, export and transit of small arms shipments, ensuring the registration of all small arms in a country, and, where appropriate, ensuring that proper controls be exercised over the manufacture of small arms to prevent their entrance into the illicit market; to promote the destruction of surplus arms. Through such actions, and the initiation of discussions on drafting a regional instrument on small arms, SARPCCO can contribute to preventing the further proliferation of small arms in the Southern African region.
Notes
- For the purpose of this document, unless otherwise indicated, “small arms” refers to both “small arms” as defined in footnote 2 and “firearms” as defined in footnote 3.
- The United Nations Panel of Government Experts on Small Arms defined “small arms” as including revolvers, and self-loading pistols, rifles, and carbines, sub-machine guns, assault rifles, and light machine-guns. The report of the Panel was adopted at the 52nd General Assembly in 1997.
- The revised draft Protocol Against the Illicit Manufacturing and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition and other Related Materials, supplementary to the United Nations Convention on Transnational Organised Crime defines “firearm” as “any barrelled weapon that will or is designed to or may be readily converted to expel a bullet or projectile by action of an explosive, (including any frame, or receiver of such as a barrelled weapon, but) not including any antique firearm manufactured before the 20th century or its replicas in accordance with domestic law.
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