Good morning. My name is Conmany Wesseh and I am the Director of the Centre for Democratic Empowerment in Monrovia, Liberia and the Chair of the West African Action Network on Small Arms. I am also a founding member of IANSA – the International Action Network on Small Arms. I would like to mention in passing that as part of the comprehensive peace agreement in Liberia, I have recently been elected to represent civil society as a member of the transitional parliament.

I come to you today – literally, as I just came off the flight – from West Africa, a region which is often and correctly identified as heavily impacted by arms trafficking and by the misuse of conventional weapons. So I’d like to tell you a little bit about what that situation is like and why this campaign is an important step in making a difference in practical ways.

Without question, conventional arms – especially small arms, including military style assault rifles and handguns – are the primary tools used in civil wars, armed insurgencies and state-sponsored repression in West Africa. There are literally millions of small arms in the sub-region –and 30 million in all of sub-Saharan Africa. The vast majority are in civilian hands (Small Arms Survey, 2003). This is less than previously estimated, but it still represents an enormous number of weapons which flow freely from owner to owner, crossing national boundaries easily, in ways that often mirror the illegal drug trade.

This is a point that bears repeating – when guns arrive in Liberia for use in armed rebellion there, there is very little stopping them from flowing directly into Sierra Leone, Guinea, Cote D’Ivoire – where they contribute to instability and conflict there, as well. When conflicts are presumed to end, the arms often remain to be used by criminals or get recycled into nearby conflicts. Therefore it is of utmost importance to stop them from arriving in the first place.

I would like to make another point about these weapons. Where do they come from? Most of these arms are not made in Africa. All down the line, it is other foreign, often European nations (East and West) and individuals who profit from the manufacture, sale, and distribution of conventional arms. But it is Liberians, other Africans, and other people living in conflict regions of the world who do the dying, who do the fleeing as refugees and whose children lose their childhood. This must end, and the only way it will end is through accountability and responsibility. The current climate of impunity in which arms dealers, traffickers, brokers and violators of UN arms embargoes operate without fear of accountability or responsibility must end.

The proliferation and misuse of arms is one of a core group of issues, including poverty, poor governance and human insecurity, which together keep the African region from achieving its full human potential. These issues are all interrelated, but none is more clearly destructive than the proliferation of conventional arms.

Yet there is no shortage of promising interventions to prevent illicit arms flows. Multi-lateral bodies such as the UN, the EU, the OAS and ECOWAS have developed global and regional recommendations for stopping the trafficking of conventional arms. But by and large, governments have been slow to take action. An IANSA study recently found that two years after the United Nations produced a politically binding Programme of Action on Small Arms, few governments have implemented even its most basic measures. So the deaths, injuries and displacements continue.

We have therefore come to a point where an expanded global public and civil society movement is needed to push government action forward. That is what the Control Arms campaign is about.

To this end, I would like to convey to you the importance of the partnership and solidarity represented by the three of us on this stage. For my part, to have Amnesty International -- who has done so much to advance the cause of human rights in Africa and elsewhere -- and Oxfam, who have provided so much desperately needed development support, working together with IANSA is a cause of great hope for me and others working to protect and promote human development.

Today, we are launching this campaign in 65 countries – and we fully expect that this number will increase in the months ahead. We know that global civil society movements for change take time, and that we are closer to the beginning than to the end. But our work is underway, our participants are committed, and we’re gaining momentum.