| 2. South East Asia has ready
stockpiles of existing weapons. The region has several post-conflict
states,
where vast numbers of military small arms and light weapons can
easily be obtained. Post-war estimates of 500,000 and one million
military small arms in Cambodia alone, although this has certainly
dropped
today due to somein-country collection and destruction,
and outflow from the country onto the black market. Weapons left
over from thewars in Vietnam and Laos as well as imported arms
from China and the Middle East are also finding their way to
insurgents, criminals and terrorists throughout the region.
3. Southeast Asia is a region with long maritime
and continental frontiers that are extremely difficult to monitor
and police.
Many of ASEAN’s members
are also ‘weak states’ and lack the capacity to effectively control
their borders and interdict arms traffickers. Such states also often store
national inventories of legally owned small arms in insecure and poorly managed
facilities,
making theft, loss and consequently smuggling, possible. Many also lack adequate
domestic gun control legislation and enforcement. Sales from Thai Army arsenals
feature in the local papers on a somewhat regular basis, and those are only
the ones caught by the police.
The destabilising nature of the proliferation and misuse of small
arms has been most evident in places like Timor, Maluku and the
Southern Philippines, but illegal guns also create serious social
problems in other ASEAN states. In Malaysia, for example, in a
high profile case, persons impersonationg military officers removed
weapons without hinderance from a military camp and used them to
set up an insurgency in nearby jungle. Of more immediate concern
to many ordinary people in ASEAN countries are the small arms in
the hands of state agents used illicitly to commit extrajudicial
executions and disappearances as well as for threats against popular
organizing.
The Pacific: Lawfully held civilian stockpiles of small arms in
the Pacific Island nations include 3.1 million firearms, or one
privately held gun for every ten people.
Key points of a recent comprehensive study of the region found:
- The vast majority of firearms in the Pacific, over 3
million, are privately owned by Australians and New Zealanders,
who rank
among the most heavily-armed civilians in the industrialised
world. New Zealand holds the largest per capita stockpile in the
region.
- The region’s combined law enforcement
and military forces hold an estimated 220,000 small arms, or
one-fifteenth
the civilian stockpile. In Fiji, the Solomon Islands and New
Guinea, groups bent on rebellion, intimidation and profit have
treated
state armouries as gun supermarkets. Much work has been done,
and
much more is needed to improve armoury security and management
practices in many Pacific Island states.
- Firearms that ‘leak’ from
lawful owners to criminals are the most common instruments
of gun crime and
violence in the Pacific. Allegations of widespread arms smuggling
are
rarely supported by evidence.
- Most Pacific nations are at peace, whether their citizens
are armed or not. In nations not experiencing armed conflict,
levels of firearm violence are generally very low. However, a
number of
Pacific nations are or have recently undergone armed conflict
with considerable social and economic effects. The Solomon Islands
continue
to teeter on the edge of economic collapse, while in Bougainville,
the production base has been almost completely destroyed.
Public confidence in the institutions of state has been badly
shaken in
all three case study communities.
A coordinated regional effort to tighten small arms controls in
the Pacific began in 1996 and led to the initiatives contained
in the Nadi Framework, agreed to Pacific Islands Forum states in
2000.
"(Adapted from the book "Small
Arms Production and Transfers in South East Asia," by David Capie)"
Regional Links:
Small Arms Survey: Asia-Pacific
Nonviolence
International – Southeast
Asia
Small
Arms Challenges in South East Asia
Legal Controls on Small Arms and Light Weapons in Southeast Asia
(July 2001)
Panorama 1/2001 (Acrobat and ZIP required)
Small
Arms Trade and Proliferation in East Asia: Southeast Asia and
the Russian Far East Institute of International Relations, University of British Columbia
Association of South East Asian Nations
Small
Arms Production and Transfers in South East Asia by David
Capie
Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development
Australia:
A ban on handguns (sort of) in Australia (IANSA News December
2002)
Gun Control Australia
Australian Institute of Criminology
The Licensing and Registration Status of Firearms Used in Homicide
(May 2000)
Australian Institute of Criminology
Firearm-Related Violence: The Impact of the Nationwide Agreement
on Firearms (May 1999). Australian Institute of Criminology
National Report on the Implementation of the
Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit
Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects
Cambodia:
Flame
of Peace in Khmer Rouge territory
Arms destruction in Cambodia - a flame of peace (IANSA News December
2002)
Working Group for Weapons Reduction in Cambodia (WGWR)
Japan
National
Report on the Implementation of the Programme of Action to Prevent,
Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in
Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (part
1)
National Report on the Implementation of the Programme of Action
to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms
and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (part 2)
New Zealand:
Peace Movement Aotearoa
Peace Foundation Aotearoa / New Zealand
Papua New Guinea
National Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
Other Pacific Islands
Pacific
Concerns Resource Centre (Fiji) IANSA
Pacific Network update: putting the brakes on Pacific gunrunning
(IANSA News December 2002)
The
Nadi Framework (Rich Text Format)
Under
the Gun: The Small Arms Challenge in the Pacific by David
Capie
Small
Arms in the Pacific by Connor Twyford and Philip Alpers
|
