IANSA Update 24.10.08

* 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

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.
www.iansa.org

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.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7673544.stm

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."

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 EUC is valid, to prevent reproductions in future years; and
using encrypted codes alongside exporting ministers' signatures to avoid
forgery.
www.grip.org/pub/rapports/rg08-4_dest_util_finales.pdf

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.

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.
www.controlarms.org

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.
www.gaps-uk.org/