ABSTRACT
Since the end of Cold War, Central Africa is
greatly marked by illicit proliferation and circulation of small arms and light
weapons (SALW) phenomenon.
· Causes of the phenomenon.
Many reasons can justify the proliferation and circulation of
arms in Central Africa's sub-region, among them, socio-political factors, armed
conflicts, movements of refugees and uncontrolled international business of
arms.
Facilitate also the illicit and anarchic circulation of SALW
in the sub-region: lack of coercive international legislation on SALW,
ambiguous reglementation of certain arms like Kalachnikov (AK-47), lack of a
credible instrument on the traçability and markage of SALW and last,
physical characteristics of those arms.
Important quantities of small arms and munitions are now
produced by many factories all over the planet, but they are more implanted in
Northern countries. According that more and more increasing production where
United States occupies the first position at world's level, african continent
occupies an important ranking with its young factories but which are already
very productive. Africa is also performant in local production of arms. That
local production is less important, but increases considerably the circulation
of arms phenomenon. Those arms circulate abundantly and the lack of control in
the world, particularly in Central Africa's sub region, facilitated by
techniques of transfer activated by traffickers and because of deficit of
control at the frontiers.
· Consequences of the phenomenon
Uncontrolled proliferation and anarchic circulation of small
arms have several negative consequences in the sub region. As well as
destroying many human lifes, small arms constitute a great menace for peace,
security and stability and also for durable development at the individual,
local, national, sub regional and regional level. In Central Africa
accumulation of small arms increases the duration of conflicts, violence and
contributes strongly to massive migration of civilians, abusive violations of
human rights and international humanitarian law, in particular unfavourably to
women and children. It facilitates the increase of national and transborder
organized criminality and also the development of ramifications of
relationships between illicit commerce of small arms, traffic of drugs and
precious minerals. In addition, small arms constitute a great obstacle to the
scopes of finding a durable solution to multiple conflicts which affect the
continent, particularly Central Africa.
At last, the excessive accumulation and circulation of SALW
have important consequences on humanitarian order: difficulty for international
community to act in armed conflicts areas because of the atrocities caused by
those arms, and obstacles to send humanitarian help for civilian populations
suffering.
· Mechanisms and instruments to control SALW in
the subregion
Since several decades, many mechanisms and instruments have
been put in place both at subregional and international levels, to combat
illicit proliferation and circulation of SALW phenomenon. However, those
mechanisms and instruments have important deficiencies and have shown their
limits. That has contributed to increase considerably the phenomenon.
· Recommendations
To end uncontrolled proliferation and circulation of small
arms, efforts must be done at continental, subregional and international
levels.
In continental level, African Union, as collective security
system has to attain certain goals, notably: to negociate with States the
reduction of stocks armaments; to create mechanisms or instances of dialogue in
order to permit pacific arrangement of conflicts so that to block those one to
be transformed in armed conflicts, sources of small arms accumulation; to
encourage cooperation between countries in order to facilitate control of
frontiers and fight against traffics of arms.
In subregional level, the Central Africa's State Economic
Community (CEEAC) has to initiate a certain number of actions: to reinforce
mechanisms of control which have shown limits and create other mechanisms more
efficient; to attribute to the COPAX special organ of control of small arms; to
reinforce capacities of security's institutions and associate civilian experts
in the fight against illicit circulation of small arms; to accelerate the
process of harmonization of national legislations on arms and reach to an
interdiction regime which includes authorizations and not an authorization
regime which includes interdictions; to reinforce bilateral cooperation and sub
regional / sub regional cooperation in order to open way to exchange of
informations on arms circulation; to create a sub regional observatory on SALW
that activities should be: to collect informations on illicit movements of arms
and munitions in order to give these to governments, to control frontiers in
order to prevent and stop illegal movements of arms and munitions, to elaborate
strategies, policies and programs of fight against illicit proliferation and
circulation of arms.
In the other way, the CEEAC must instigate governments to
fight against corruption, particularly vis-à-vis security forces and
custom personnel incharged of controls in the frontiers. States members must
also emphasize on the fight against poverty. Government of the sub region
should particularly establish democracy and make an effort to practise good
governance in order to block social tensions, more over arms conflicts, sources
of arms accumulation.
Concerning the specific case of Cameroon, a module should be
added to the program of training of CSID.
At the level of United Nations, efforts must also be made.
Article 51 of the Charte which accords implicitly to States a large licence to
accumulate and exports arms, must be amended. The conventional arms Register of
1991 which excludes small arms from the list of classic arms submitted to
declaration, must be completed by adding those arms; the informations to
communicate by States must include present stocks of armaments; the
declarations of states members must be obligatory; the Register should
integrate one article which institutes an international independent office of
control of States in charge of inspections. The United Nations must also reach
to the treaty of non anarchic proliferation of SALW and munitions, and to the
creation of a sort of international agency of small arms and munitions. The
mission of the agency should be to inspect factories of SALW in order to see if
States respect international legislations and quotas of production fixed.
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