In almost every country or state, the existence of Small and Light Weapons SALW is an important necessity. These weapons have had to their credit a very good solid and impressive impact in the maintenance of both national and continental peace and security. As history of the nation`s state testifies, the role of small arms and light weapons in deterring aggression, combating crime, maintenance of internal peace and security seems to have been more important than any other element in any state.
The stark reality today however, has to the largest extent changed the role of small arms and light weapons in the conduct of local and international security. Small arms and light weapons proliferation is spreading like wild bush-fire in many parts of the world including Africa and the sub region. This has severely influenced the development of coup d` etate, civil wars, armed robbery, conflicts, terrorism and other violent related activities within the sub-region and beyond. Consequently, the proliferation of small arms and light weapons by politicians, smugglers, multi-national cooperation and other critical segments of states apparatus, have also contributed to regime change and weakened governments from control of the state as currently witnessed in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria, Mali, Cameroon and the like. Such organizations routinely benefit from strife in crises hit areas. These developments have pre occupied the minds of academicians, policy makers, international institutions and civil society organizations.
As a trained peer educator, emergency first aider, founding member of Ghana Interfaith Youth Network for Peace Building, Islamic preacher and International Affairs student, it is on the basis of these challenges that we also got involved to strive within the framework of our capability to complement efforts of the government, international organizations, NGOs and other stake holders in order to combat illicit arms trade in Ghana and beyond.
Ghana is at a cross road owing to the impending 2016 presidential and parliamentary elections. It is obviously one of the nations within the sub region that is currently confronted with a plethora of challenges over the clandestine transfer of small and light weapons from neighboring countries and beyond. The illicit transfer of small arms in the country is a potential threat to national peace, security and development. To combat proliferation of SALW and ensure domestic tranquility there is the need for the country to attach importance to any attempt at forging and promoting closer intelligence and security ties at the local, regional and continental level. We must propose and discuss key issues and other possibilities like trade controls, sensitization exercise by targeting young people in disadvantage neighborhoods’, background information, marking, tracing, collecting, and destroying small arms, before the country is grappled with crisis resulting from the illicit transfer of arms.
Political violence, arm robbery, land disputes, ethnic and chieftaincy conflicts and other threats fed by the unrestrained proliferation of SALW seem to be factors that have further destabilized societies in Africa and the sub region already ravaged by civil war, disease, poverty, corruption, youth unemployment, environmental degradation and the like. As a result of the aftermath of major opened armed conflicts in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Libya, Mali, and the spillover of the scourge of terrorism, millions of small arms like hand guns, pistols, rifles, sub-machine guns, mortars, grenades, light missiles and as well as Light weapons including heavy machine guns, mounted grenade launchers, portable anti-aircraft guns, anti-tank guns, and portable launchers of anti-tank missile have fallen into the hands of civilians, insurgents, irregular armed forces and other criminal gangs. These weapons are tools that to littered the world with thousands of corpses and further escalated ethnic and criminal violence, intractable conflicts, terrorism and socio-economic problems.
Every year, small arms and light weapons kill more people than the chemical and atomic bombs dropped in parts of the Middle East, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and elsewhere put together. Thus the proliferation of arms in the world is not new as the world is witnessing new dimensions; in a tangible sign of difficulty, arms trade in Africa is out of control; not only one person dies every minute but millions are forced to flee their homes. And the link between arm violence, disease and poverty is inescapable. These weapons that kill people everyday are circulating around the world and the lack of pragmatic global regulation seems to make it far too easy for corrupt arms dealers like governments, militants and other sub national groups to apply their trade with impunity.
For Africa alone, 18 billion dollars are lost every year due to armed violence. Billions of dollars amounts the worth of the gun trade, of which small number may be illicit. A vast majority of these arms are in the hands of civilians. New guns are being manufactured every year by at least hundreds of companies in different countries. Arms trade is really an interconnected trade in which all governments are involved. The puzzle lies in the regulation of the trade and supply of Small and light weapons. There are arms companies who produce the entire weapons systems; others are also involved in the production of parts of arms. These arms are assembled and exported to other countries. This also makes it fundamentally hard for effective control. The transfer of SALW is a challenge owing to a plethora of supply networks-like government agencies, rebels, arms manufacturers, licensed firearms dealers, smugglers, and terrorist organizations. This makes it extremely difficult as the line between legitimate and illicit transfer of SALW is most often than not obscured. Government must therefore take responsibility in order to regulate the purchase of arms. This has had a huge impact and negative effect on the Continent`s ability to overcome violence, poverty, human rights abuses, genocide, corruption, disease and unemployment. New arms production, excess equipments, free and cheap arms supply are by far one of the sources of proliferation. Excess arms supplied freely or sold by soldiers from industrialized or developed countries armies after civil wars and military interventions often enter the black market and resurface at hotspots of terrorists, rebels, drug cartels, armed robbers, extremists and other organized criminal gangs.
Giving away surplus arms appear to be the cheapest way to dispose of them. These surplus arms cheaply sold are sometimes turned against both soldiers and civilians, which have had a devastating impact in parts the world. The recent most forceful restatement of unauthorized arms transfer by nations was made by US Vice-President Joe Biden in a student gathering, at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum at the Institute of Politics Harvard University in 2015 when he accused America’s key allies in the Middle East of allowing the rise of the Islamic State (ISIL-ISIS), as they supported extremists with“hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of tons of weapons” towards anyone who would fight in their eagerness to oust the Assad regime in Syria. According to Baiden “The outcome of such a policy now is more visible,” he said, as it turned out they supplied extremists from Al-Nusra Front, ISIL-ISIS and Al-Qaeda.
Thus the contribution of nations to the easy availability and low cost of weapons seems to be among the factors fuelling crime and arms proliferation. For instance the easy cost of grenades in parts of East Africa like Burundi has and is still causing a devastating impact in the country. Small arms like Kalashnikov rifles and the like are cheap enough for even the poorest of militants and insurgent groups to acquire in large quantities. Small arms appear to be lightweight and easy to conceal for smuggling and for carrying out operations. A clear cut example is the cargo truck seized at the Aflao Border with one million cartridges which is believed to have passed through the border into Ghana on several occasions. These weapons seemed to be flexible to use and neither a single simple professional training nor complex organizations are needed to maintain them. This facilitates the recruitment of child soldiers to handle and manipulate them due to their extreme level of flexibility.
The continent and the sub region have witnessed increasing sophistication and better coordination between arms smugglers and insurgents. These are clear manifestations of the fact that, the global campaign against SALW has over the years been honored more in the breach than in the observance. Our national security should be able to empower itself, demonstrate ability to focus events both within and across Ghana and to accurately assess the future threat posture of arms smugglers, border control and Jihadist entities, before we are grappled by the scourge. The public may also be given access to a professional standard of intelligence training in order to better understand the level of threats from these renegades.
By improving national customs controls, standardizing export regulations, and expand buy-back programs, The Northern Borders of Ghana like Mognori, Kulungugu, Yelwongo in the Upper East Region, Hamili in the Upper West, Elubo in the Western Region, other borders and unapproved routes must be subjected to constant and rigorous checks by the security services. Thus Ghana may forge, expand and deepen intelligence or security ties with regional neighbors. The government may equip Ministry of the Interior, Civil Society Organizations and other NGOs to carry out several key policy recommendations to combat the spread of small arms into the country. There is the need for us to strengthen state institutions, with strong economy, reduction in crime, create effective programs to re-integrate the youth and potential combatants into civil society, which may reduce the incentives for them to turn to banditry for survival, since their ideological, financial and mental gullibility are often used as a chance for recruitment.
Although, combating unauthorized arms proliferation is an important necessity, it is the underlying causes of the violence in which these weapons are used that need to be dealt with as a priority. Thus it is only by addressing key issues such as poverty, youth unemployment, corruption, extremism, sensitization programs in all the ten regions on the effects of illegal weapons, justice, environmental degradation, gross social inequities and the like may help us weather the storm and have a one-size-fits-all set of arrangements.
Sandow A. Seidu
Islamic Researcher and International Affairs Analysts
0263087560
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