IANSA Regions: South and Central Asia


South and Central Asia
	South Asia is a region affected by armed conflicts in all of its forms, from interstate war and sectarian conflict to guerilla warfare and organised crime. Small arms are a prominent feature of all of these conflicts. Some areas are becoming a weapon-depended society. The majority of small arms in the region do not originate in South Asia, but in the West and transported across the golden crescent. The numbers of small arms in South Asia grew substantially in the wake of conflicts outside the region in the 1970’s and 80’s that were fuelled by Western-made weapons. These were the wars in Afghanistan and Cambodia.
The single most significant source of weapons on the subcontinent was the first Afghanistan war, in which both sides procured weapons from around the world, many of which have since flowed to Pakistan and India. Similarly, the end of declared war in Cambodia made available large numbers of weapons that have found their way into Sri Lanka, north-eastern India and Kashmir. The recent US-led war in Afghanistan and on-going violence between India and Pakistan, as well as internal violence in Sri Lanka, Kashmir and Nepal, continue to add to both the supply of and demand for small arms in the region. There are now an estimated 75 million firearms in South Asia, 63 million of which are in civilian hands. India and Pakistan overwhelmingly account for most of the weapons (40 million and 20 million respectively) where there is local production as well, while civilians in Nepal and Sri Lanka own an additional 3 million weapons (?). Civilians are the largest category of gun owners in the region, accounting for far more weapons than the military, police and insurgents. The impact of these weapons has been felt from Sri Lanka to Afghanistan. Thirty years of violence between India and Pakistan over Kashmir has killed tens of thousands people. Since 1996, Maoist rebels have been fighting a war in Nepal that has killed 2,000. And in Karachi alone small arms were used to kill an estimated 20,000 people between 1992 and 1998. NGOs operating in the region identify the uneasy relations between South Asia’s neighbours as a primary hindrance to efforts to prevent small arms proliferation. A disinclination to address the problem has meant that South Asia lags far behind some other regions in its efforts to address small arms proliferation. IANSA participant organisations in the region are seeking to: build a regional advocacy network to address small arms proliferation promote transparency of arms transfers between states develop public education campaigns on the small arms trade in South Asia shift state expenditures from weapons and military operations to human development Links Small Arms Survey: Asia-Pacific Small arms in Pakistan - report by CAMP (2005) Warning: 2MB South Asia Partnership International Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies South Asia Partnership International – Sri Lanka South Asia Partnership – Nepal International Youth Co-ordination Council, Nepal