El Salvador although is formally at peace after a bloody civil war of 1980s since 1992. Yet the number of violent deaths since that year are about 20,000 per year. Heavily armed Salvadorian criminal groups are responsible for murders, kidnappings and robberies throughout the country and in most of these cases weapons left by the civil war are being used. In reaction to rising crime and violence, ordinary citizens are also arming themselves.29

Sri Lanka

An ethnic war in Sri Lanka has devastated the peace and tranquillity of the island for more than a decade. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE) are continuously committing acts of terrorism in order to pressurize the government to give an independent status to their part of Sri Lanka. It is a universally known fact that the initial training and supply of small arms were provided to LTTE by elements in India.30 However, weapons are purchased from the black market as well. So far the situation could not be controlled and it is apprehended that a large presence of small arms may not allow peace to prevail in future as well.

Southern Africa

Some 9 million small arms are thought to be present on record in Southern Africa, Angola, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, but substantial additional numbers of weapons are in private hands which are coming from across the borders through secret arms-trading channels.31 Although no one knows for sure just how many fire arms are in circulation, there is no doubt that the region is flooded with weapons. Decades of warfare and violent political struggle have given rise to a pervasive gun culture. Substantial numbers of people in the region, including former combatants, rely on criminal activities to make a living. In Mozambique, Northern Namibia, and Angola the proliferation of light weapons, especially anti-personnel landmines threaten to subvert social and economic reconstruction.32

In South Africa, the political violence of the years of transition away from Apartheid (1990-93), during which some 10,000 people were killed has declined dramatically. But there has been a parallel, equally dramatic increase in criminal violence fuelled by high unemployment and economic hardship.33

Tajikistan

Light weapons even found their way in the newly liberated Central Asian Republics. These weapons have caused commendable destruction. The case of civil war in Tajikistan provides the evidence in this regard.

The conflict in Tajikistan was precipitated by the collapse of the Moscow-backed Communist regime in Afghanistan in April 1992. It emboldened the Tajik Islamists to rise in revolt against the hardline communist President Rakhman Nabieve. Russian Garrison stationed in the republic intervened on the word from Moscow, ostensibly to protect the 300,000 ethnic Russians living in Tajikistan, but actually to help the old Communist Partisan’s return to power in Dushanbe with the blessings of the rulers of other Central Asian republics, which was an effort to protect their own regimes against such uprisings in future. Till October 1994, when intra Tajik peace talks were initiated, more than 50,000 Tajiks were killed and 200,000 were forced into exile.34

The Tajik civil war was just a glimpse of the destruction, that could be brought by the presence of light weapons in a region like Central Asia which has inherited many difficult problems from the history. the ethnic diversity and their conflicting ideologies with a high potential for foreign interventions may prove in future disastrous for Central Asian Republics. Unfortunately this probability has increased with the constant flow of small arms in these states which have been provided to different ethnic groups by external sources.

Middle East

Innumerable killings have so far taken place in the Arab-Israel conflict and a main source of these has been small weapons carried by Israeli soldiers and organizations like Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Hamas. It is very unfortunate that this age-old conflict could not find a permanent solution till today, consequently innocent civilians are being killed constantly by the armed activists in order to pressurize each other.

Kosovo

It is very unfortunate that Balkan continues to maintain its role in the history of wars. The fresh conflict that is becoming a blood spot is Serbia’s Southern Province, Kosovo. The province, with a majority of Muslim population having an Albanian origin, has reorganized its separatist movement with its main strength in Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), a guerrilla force.

The situation got worsened when in March, 1998, the Serb police struck at the Muslim villages in a bid to eliminate the guerrillas hiding there to avenge the death of two policemen allegedly killed by the KLA. Later on the army joined the police in frenzied killings of the villagers. As a result of all these the affected population fled for safety to the neighbouring areas. Apparently the troops claimed to have driven out the KLA guerrillas into the jungles and have killed their commander and others. In fact they killed mostly innocent civilians to terrorize the population into submission.53 people were reported killed in these atrocities and most of them were old people, children and women. In Serbranica (Bosnia), innocent people were first killed and then corpses were dumped in mass graves.35

The unrest in Kosovo was provoked by Slobodan Milasovic, the Serbian leader who sent most 180,000 Croatian Serbs to the province during the war.36 The idea was to establish Serb settlements in Kosovo in order to justify the Serb claim to Kosovo. For that matter the myth of the holy land was conceived i.e. that the orthodox churches and monasteries of Serb people were located in Kosovo.

Light weapon are as usual represented in this whole scene and thus the killings are taking place in every nook and corner. The people are equipped with Klashinkov AK-47 rifles, rocket launchers etc. They will be supplied further with weapons seized last year by their fellow Albanians during the revolt.37

The matter is of serious concern as it has the potential of becoming an all-out European War, if not being properly treated. Even if the situation not reaches to that extent then too, it will cause the death of thousands, and small weapons would indeed put their greater share in it.

India

For the last two decades India is not only becoming a conduit for arms and narcotics but there is a thriving underground market for sophisticated firearms. There is enough quantity of arms in India to sustain not only the numerous minor and major terrorist groups inside the country but to also keep alive the supply lines to terrorist groups and the underworld in neighbouring countries. In Bombay, where the market is flourishing, sophisticated firearms can be obtained quite easily. Due to the large amount of business conducted at the Bombay port, the gangs connive with customers, officials to smuggle in large variety of guns like the AK-47 and its improvised versions.38

It is possible that the separatist movements in Kashmir, Punjab, Rajihstan and Gujarat are reasons for rise in arms smuggling, for which India believes Pakistan is the most responsible. But it is also a fact that the Indian state has failed to tackle these problems politically. Instead of finding appropriate solutions to problems created by political mismanagement, it has covered its conspiracies and inadequacies with a web of lies, clouding the real issues from the North-East to the Kashmir valley. As an example, the main demands of Mizos, Nagas, Bodos and the people of Manipur and Tripura, had to do with their identities and anxiety about their economic and political future. But being mainly tribal populations they were treated patronisingly and heavy handedly including bombing parts of Mizoram by Indian Air Force planes in March 1966. The profound resentment thus generated exist to this day and as was to be expected, led to an exaltation of terrorist activity.

In Punjab the congress Party touched a new low: having been in power for long, once it found itself out of office it actively encouraged militancy for its political combat. And when that led to the large scale violence, the Sikhs were made the scapegoats for the crisis created by it. Every Akali demands, like the fair division of river waters, greater state autonomy, redrawing of Punjab’s boundaries, and the designation of Chandigarh as its exclusive capital, was damned as separatist. Through canny manipulation of press and state-controlled radio and television the congress government-after returning to power at the centre ensured extensive coverage of fiery speeches by its leaders and the widening communal divide eventually led, as it had to, to unparalleled violence which climaxed in Operation Bluestar and the October 1984 killings.39

So whilst terrorist activity in North-East and Kashmir grew out of a failure to respond in time to their people’s discontents, Punjab owes its terror to the Congress Party’s Machiavellian bid for power. Its moves were no different from the power games of the US, Britain and others who also encourage terror wherever their interest requires it.

The injection of terror for furthering political goals is no longer the congress party’s prerogative. Other national and regional parties, quick to appreciate its potential, have shown few qualms about inciting violence if it brings votes. Which is why every inflammatory slogan along the 10,000 km Rath Yattra’ of BJP Lal Krishna Advani was an open invitation to terror. The inevitable Hindu-Muslim riots in its wake - openly instigated by a political party aspiring to power at the centre reaped a deadly harvest of human lives in the towns, cities and countryside of India’s volatile regions. They were part of BJP’s election strategy. As was Babri Masjid’s demolition and the massacres which followed.40

Pakistan

The present situation in Pakistan reveals that there is a nexus between the increase in heinous crimes and the unceasing flow and easy availability of arms. Whether it is a gang of robbers on the rampage, or hired assassins or frenzied fictional or sectarian militant, thirsting for blood. they all seem to have free access to weapons of all kinds, including Kalashinkov and other sophisticated weapons, now freely and cheaply available in Pakistan. There have even been reports of the most lethal shoulder carried missile, the stinger, being on sale in shops in the tribal areas. 41

The patent fact is that the flourishing trade in illicit arms receive a mighty impetus as a spin-off of Pakistan’s involvement in the Afghanistan war at the beginning of the 1980s. The arms producing centres in tribal areas of the Frontier Province too have made sure that the deadly trade continues to flourish. Drives have been launched by the authorities in these areas from time to time to check the production and sale of arms but without much success.42

There are indications that present government in Pakistan has begun to realize the urgency of an allout clean-up drive. As part of its strategy to check grouping lawlessness, violence and terrorism, a national plan of action was drawn up by the federal cabinet in January 1998, which is considered as a major step to ensure the registration of all weapons, whether authorised or not, held by the people. It is, however, essential to put a cutting edge to the tribal areas as well, which is the main conduit for the movement of illicit weapons.

The picture that emerges at the global level in this context is one where individual countries and entire regions are inundated with military style small arms and civilian firearms. Current controls, so far, have appeared hopelessly inadequate for dealing with the massive flow of arms. Surprisingly this factor has neither been analyzed in depth nor sufficiently highlighted for its obvious linkages with violence.

Remedial Measures

The spread of small arms and light weapons have so far been dealt as the most underestimated item of arms control. Throughout the cold war years, arms control and disarmament efforts have focused exclusively on major weapon systems. Although that has begun to change in recent years but still there is a long distance to cover. There are no internationally accepted norms and standards about small arms; their production, trade, and possession still remain essentially unmonitored and unregulated.

It is obvious that the problem is extremely complex, and will require many concurrent measures to deal with existing proliferation and future spread in a comprehensive manner. Some of the steps and measures that need to be examined and pursued should include:

1. Efforts should be made to create awareness among the masses regarding the destructive role of small arms and light weapons through education and research studies.

2. It is necessary to insist on some degree of international transparency in this field. At present, governments are under no obligation to make available information on their imports and exports of light weapons. A UN Register of Small Arms and Light Weapons would go a long way to meet this objective.

3. Besides the control of force of production, tighter national gun control laws and enforcement at national levels will be necessary if the menace of the spread of small arms into society is to be controlled. It will also be necessary to harmonize such laws and enforcement measures on bilateral, regional and global frameworks.

4. Tighter national export control laws concerning small arms and light weapons, will be necessary so as to ensure a degree of control over future flows of small arms and ammunition.

5. Another immediate challenge in coping with small arms is to reduce the number of weapons that are already in circulation. First, weapons that are now surplus to the needs of armies in industrialized countries will need to be dismantled instead of being sold off cheaply. Second, arms that are left over at the end of civil wars in developing countries need to be collected before they fall into the hands of domestic or international smugglers.

6. The world community should adopt restrictions or prohibition on the transfer of certain types of weapons that are especially cruel or barbaric in their effects. The first target should be the trade in antipersonnel landmines. Presently many leaders have promised to support the struggle against the antipersonnel landmines, but more effort is needed to persuade holdout states to agree.

7. Undoubtedly there exist armament manufacturers and traders lobbies and they have the strength to influence the international affairs. It is therefore essential, that the focus for control of conventional arms and light weapons should be linked to them. Indeed they are the real but hidden culprits responsible for conflict manipulations’. It is therefore necessary to create awareness among the victim countries and people about their Grand Design’.

8. It is important that the present conflict-ridden world is changed into a peaceful and welfare global village. It is expected that the powerful countries of the world will help to resolve the on-going conflicts on the basis of humanitarian and moral values. It is viewed that the main hurdle in achieving this objective is the lobby of armament producers and traders, therefore, their main interest, which is commercial profit, should be replaced by converting the existing armament industry for social sector development. Thus it concludes that civilisation of armament industry is an inescapable imperative to achieve a conflict-free and peaceful world.

9. An entirely different approach will be needed to control the black market traffic in arms since such trafficking violates, by definition, national and international norms regarding arms transfers. There is no point in trying to persuade the suppliers and recipients involved to abide by new international restraints on the munition trade. Instead, governments should be asked to tighten their own internal controls on arms trafficking and to cooperate with other states in identifying, monitoring, and suppressing illegal gun traffickers.

10. Drug trafficking has been a major factor in the spread of small arms. Initially, drug traffickers acquire arms for protection of the trade; and this inevitably links the traffic of arms and drugs. Drug trafficking has generally been treated as a social problem. But its growing linkage with the spread of small arms and armed violence requires that drug trafficking be treated as national and international security issue.