IANSA Update 24 October 2008

Pakistan: Tribes will be given Chinese AK-47s to fight Taliban
Argentina: Former president on trial for arms smuggling
Philippines: PhilANSA urges government to rethink cash-for-guns
New GRIP report on End User Certification
DRC: Parliament discusses new small arms law
UN: Race for the ATT; IANSA to address plenary
Other news: ATT rally in Nigeria; IANSA joins gender & security group; WN bulletin in Portuguese

Pakistan: Tribes will be given Chinese AK-47s to fight Taliban
China has sold tens of thousands of AK-47 assault rifles to Pakistan, where they will be handed out to anti-Taliban tribal fighters in the border region. The Washington Post reports that President Asif Ali Zardari secured the deal during a visit to Beijing this month. The deal has come under criticism from IANSA members in the region, who point out that there are already an estimated 20 million small arms in the country. The tribal fighters, or lashkars, are a key feature of Pakistan’s strategy to battle militants linked with al-Qaida and the Taliban. Read more here.

Argentina: Former president on trial for arms smuggling
A former president of Argentina is on trial in Buenos Aires for his alleged involvement in smuggling arms to Ecuador and Croatia while they were both at war. Carlos Menem oversaw the illegal transfer of 6,500 tons of firearms to Ecuador and Croatia from 1991–1995. Croatia was under a UN arms embargo at the time, due to the break up of the Balkans, and Argentina was also banned from selling weapons to Ecuador in its capacity as official peace broker in the Peru-Ecuador border dispute. Read more here.

Philippines: PhilANSA urges government to rethink cash-for-guns
PhilANSA is urging the Philippine government to rethink its strategy of offering cash incentives to rebels from the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party, if they hand in their firearms. The government has increased the cash incentive for surrendering an M16 rifle to 50,000 Philippines Pesos (US $1000). PhilANSA said: “Exchanging guns for money creates the risk that rebels will hand in one gun and use the cash to upgrade their weapon. We call on the government to explore other alternatives, such as land distribution and livelihood programs that will aid the personal and economic development of the rebel-returnees and their communities.”

New GRIP report on End User Certification
GRIP has published a set of recommendations on the end user certification process in its latest report, “Destination and Final Use: Problems with Arms Exports”. The report highlights how the UN arms embargo on Liberia was broken several times due to forged end user certificates (EUC). The recommendations include: rigorous checking of EUC signatories by exporting and importing states; inclusion of arms brokers’ contacts and licence copies; declaring a time-frame during which the ECU is valid, to prevent reproductions in future years; and using encrypted codes alongside exporting ministers’ signatures to avoid forgery. Read more here.

DRC: Parliament discusses new small arms law
The DR Congo parliament has discussed a new law to reduce the flow of small arms in the country. The National Assembly judged the bill admissible on Monday 21 October and it will now be reviewed by the Defense and Security committee. The law incorporates several elements of the Nairobi Protocol and mandates the marking of weapons and the creation of small arms inventories for all state agencies.

UN: Race for the ATT; IANSA to address plenary
Control Arms campaigners attending the UNGA First Committee raced around 192 UN missions to deliver a video message from Archbishop Desmond Tutu last Tuesday. The urgent message called for delegates to vote YES to start an open ended working group on the ATT. IANSA will make a short presentation to the First Committee on Monday 27 October.

Other news

• Congratulations to the Nigeria Action Network on Small Arms (NANSA) which organised a rally to lobby the Nigeria government and UNGA delegation to support the ATT on Friday 17 October.
• IANSA has become a member of Gender Action for Peace and Security (GAPS), an expert working group of peace and development NGOs, academics and grassroots peace builders. Building on UN Security Council Resolution 1325, GAPS promotes, facilitates and monitors the meaningful inclusion of gender perspectives in all aspects of UK policy and practice on peace and security.
• The IANSA Women's Network Bulletin #16 is now available in Portuguese.

Please send your stories on developments in small arms from around the world to louise.rimmer@iansa.org

Join the IANSA Women's Network: email women@iansa.org

Join the Million Faces petition in support of a global Arms Trade Treaty