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Monday, 14 January
2002: UNDP will launch programmes to reduce the demand for
guns and to offer alternatives in security, sustainable livelihoods
and development opportunities in Afghanistan.
The challenge is
to recover millions of weapons accumulated in the country over
the last two decades and thus remove a major obstacle to reconsruction.
The re-supply of arms and ammunition to the Northern Alliance
and weapons used in the most recent fighting add to the problem.
In close cooperation
with the Interim Authority, UNDP aims to equip the Afghan government
and people with the know-how and the means to take control
of their circumstances to pursue a gun-free road to development.
"While early
gains are possible," says Robert Scharf, UNDP Small Arms
Programme Manager, "a longer term process is necessary
in order to disarm ex-combatants and train security forces
to control the proliferation of weapons."
A UNDP small arms
programme, currently being formulated, includes:
- Supporting the
development of national policy approaches;
- Raising awareness
through symbolic activities, such as voluntary arms destruction
events;
- Reviving and
strengthening legislation on small arms possession;
Increasing control of government-owned eweapons (stockpile management,
etc.);
- Controlling
and destroying excess weapons made redundant in the disarmament,
demobilization and reintegration efforts, and security sector
reform processes;
- Developing community
approaches to small arms collection; and
- Strengthening
border controls and regional cooperation in curtailing illicit
small arms flows.
With initial funding
from the UNDP Trust Fund on Small Arms, UNDP will bring in
small arms advisors to the region to conduct an assessment
and identify needs. Advisors will support UNDP country offices
and coordinate preparatory activities in awareness raising,
technical assistance, symbolic destruction, and the formulation
of a longer-term programme for small arms reduction.
A small arms technical
advisor for the Interim Authority will then provide guidance
on policy approaches, managing stockpiles, collection and destruction.
In addition, UNDP
will monitor and support media coverage of small arms problems
and identify opportunities for donor assistance. It will begin
by helping to destroy arms from the Kabul district in voluntary
destruction event. The media will cover the event to raise
awareness, and encourage similar events to destroy excess weapons
in the possession of local forces.
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