Combating light weapons proliferation in West Africa

International Affairs

Volumn 81, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 341-360

  Vines, Alex ^a  

^a NONE

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EID: 15844396056     PISSN: 00205850     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-2346.2005.00454.x     Document Type: Article

References (58)

1. See UNDP's ECOWAS Small Anns Control Programme (ECOSAP), 'Programme to Tackle the Illicit Proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons in ECOWAS States', programme document, Sept. 2004, p. 3. Small arms and light weapons are hand-held weapons such as machine guns, rifles, pistols, shotguns and landmines.
2. Small Arms Survey 2003: development denied (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 80-81.
3. M. Akinkugbe, West Africa's 'insecurity complex': Liberia Mano River war and regional security (Lagos: Centre for Democracy and Development, 23 Sept. 2003).
4. Abdel-Fatau Musa, 'Small arms: a time bomb under West Africa's democratization process', Brown Journal of World Affairs 9: 1, Spring 2002.
5. Adedeji Ebo, West Africa: an assessment of small arms control initiatives, West Africa Series no. I Security and Peacebuilding Programme, International Alert, Oct. 2003, London.
6. ECOWAS, established in 1975, originally had 15 members: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo. Cape Verde joined in 1977 and Mauritania left the organization in 2000.
7. See, 'Concept Paper for ECOWAS/UNDP Conference on Small Arms and Light Weapons', Abuja, 30-31 Aug. 2004.
8. Cape Verde has created a 'parallel structure', recognized by ECOWAS as the equivalent. 9 UNAMSIL Milops report on file with author and interviews of eyewitnesses at Zimi and the Mano River Union Bridge, Sierra Leone in March 2003.
9. More than 85,000 small arms have been collected from armed groups and civilians since 1998.
10. Roger Laloupo, 'Aperçu sur le Code de Conduite de la Cedeao', ECOWAS conference on combating illicit small arms brokering and trafficking, Abuja, 22-24 March 2004.
11. Foundation for Security Development in Africa, Forai on small arms in West Africa, no. 4, May 2003, and no. 5, Oct. 2003.
12. Foundation for Security Development in Africa, Forai on small arms in West Africa, no. 4, May 2003, and no. 5, Oct. 2003.
13. Human Rights Watch, Weapons sanctions, military supplies, and human suffering: illegal arms flows to Liberia and the June-July 2003 shelling of Monrovia, briefing paper, 3 Nov. 2003.
14. United Nations, 'Report of the Panel of Experts on violations of Security Council sanctions against UNITA', UN document 5/2000/203, 10 March 2000.
15. The Crusading Guide, Accra, 9-15 March 2004; interview with Ghana police, Accra, 21 June 2004.
16. The Crusading Guide, Accra, 9-15 March 2004; interview with Ghana police, Accra, 21 June 2004.
17. Jacqueline Seek, West Africa small arms moratorium: high level consultation on the modalities of the implementation of PCASED (Geneva: UNIDIR, Feb. 2000).
18. Solo Ogunbanwo, 'Evaluation study on the ECOWAS Moratorium on Importation, Exportation and Manufacture of Small Arms in West Africa', final draft, 21 Oct. 2002, submitted to ECOWAS and UNDP. For a defence of PCASED's record see ECOSAP, 'Programme to tackle the illicit proliferation of small arms and light weapons in ECOWAS states', pp. 7-8.
19. Solo Ogunbanwo, 'Evaluation study on the ECOWAS Moratorium on Importation, Exportation and Manufacture of Small Arms in West Africa', final draft, 21 Oct. 2002, submitted to ECOWAS and UNDP. For a defence of PCASED's record see ECOSAP, 'Programme to tackle the illicit proliferation of small arms and light weapons in ECOWAS states', pp. 7-8.
20. Interviews with international donors and ECOWAS officials just after the ECOWAS donors' conference, Abuja, 16 Nov. 2004.
21. In Côte d'Ivoire ex-combatants were to receive US$830 compared with US$300 in Liberia. Although Côte d'Ivoire's disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) programme has been delayed indefinitely, the offer of more cash may have encouraged Liberian ex-combatants to stockpile their weapons and wait. In response to this chaos, in May and August 2004 the Dakar-based United Nations Office for West Africa hosted meetings to harmonize DDR programmes in West Africa. It remains to be seen if these information-sharing exercises have had any impact.
22. On 16-18 March 2005 NGOs participated in a regional validation workshop in Bamako. Oxfam has taken the lead in pressing for the draft convention to be strengthened.
23. Interview with ECOWAS Deputy Executive Secretary for Political Affairs, Defence and Security Gen. Cheick Oumar Diana, Bonn, 4 Dec. 2004.
24. United Nations, 'Report of the Panel of Experts appointed pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1306 (2000), para. 19 in relation to Sierra Leone', UN document S/2000/1195, 20 Dec. 2000.
25. United Nations, 'Report of the Panel of Experts appointed pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1408 (2002), para. 16, concerning Liberia', UN document 5/2002/1115, 25 Oct. 2002; 'Report of the Panel of Experts appointed pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1395 (2002), para. 4, in relation to Liberia', UN document 8/2002/470, 19 April 2002; 'Report of the Panel of Experts appointed pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1458 (2003), para. 4, concerning Liberia', UN document 8/2003/498, 24 April 2003; 'Report of the Panel of Experts appointed pursuant to para. 25 of Security Council Resolution 1478 (2003) concerning Liberia', UN document 8/2003/937, 28 Oct. 2003.
26. United Nations, 'Report of the Panel of Experts appointed pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1408 (2002), para. 16, concerning Liberia', UN document 5/2002/1115, 25 Oct. 2002; 'Report of the Panel of Experts appointed pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1395 (2002), para. 4, in relation to Liberia', UN document 8/2002/470, 19 April 2002; 'Report of the Panel of Experts appointed pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1458 (2003), para. 4, concerning Liberia', UN document 8/2003/498, 24 April 2003; 'Report of the Panel of Experts appointed pursuant to para. 25 of Security Council Resolution 1478 (2003) concerning Liberia', UN document 8/2003/937, 28 Oct. 2003.
27. United Nations, 'Report of the Panel of Experts appointed pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1408 (2002), para. 16, concerning Liberia', UN document 5/2002/1115, 25 Oct. 2002; 'Report of the Panel of Experts appointed pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1395 (2002), para. 4, in relation to Liberia', UN document 8/2002/470, 19 April 2002; 'Report of the Panel of Experts appointed pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1458 (2003), para. 4, concerning Liberia', UN document 8/2003/498, 24 April 2003; 'Report of the Panel of Experts appointed pursuant to para. 25 of Security Council Resolution 1478 (2003) concerning Liberia', UN document 8/2003/937, 28 Oct. 2003.
28. United Nations, 'Report of the Panel of Experts appointed pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1408 (2002), para. 16, concerning Liberia', UN document 5/2002/1115, 25 Oct. 2002; 'Report of the Panel of Experts appointed pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1395 (2002), para. 4, in relation to Liberia', UN document 8/2002/470, 19 April 2002; 'Report of the Panel of Experts appointed pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1458 (2003), para. 4, concerning Liberia', UN document 8/2003/498, 24 April 2003; 'Report of the Panel of Experts appointed pursuant to para. 25 of Security Council Resolution 1478 (2003) concerning Liberia', UN document 8/2003/937, 28 Oct. 2003.
29. Altx Vines, 'Monitoring UN sanctions in Africa: the role of the panel of experts', in Trevor Findlay, Verification Yearbook 2003 (London: VERTIC, 2004), pp. 247-63.
30. The Taylor regime needed ammunition mostly because of high munitions consumption by its poorly disciplined forces. This is supported by a UNMIL assessment of light weapons handed over in the DDR process. According to UNMIL, some 65 per cent of 5,000 Serbian weapons known to have been shipped to Monrovia in 2002 have been recovered. It suggests that reports in 2002 and 2003 by NGOs such as Global Witness about sanctions-busting weapons shipments were greatly exaggerated. Telephone interview with UNMIL official, Monrovia, 10 Jan. 2005.
31. James Brabaon, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, briefing paper no. 1, Chatham House Africa Programme, Armed Non-State Actors Project, Feb. 2003.
32. United Nations Security Council, Resolution 1584 (2005), S/RES/1584 (2005), 1 Feb. 2005.
33. Flights arriving with military cargos to Burkina Faso increased in 2005: for example, a series of flights was organized by an Israeli weapons broker from Ukraine.
34. Republic of Togo report to UN Arms Register, submitted 3 July 2001. Information based on the year 2000.
35. Kwesi Aning, 'Small arms and crime in Africa: the Ghana case', background paper, Small Arms Survey, Geneva, 2003.
36. For a discussion of the impact of weapons availability on crime see Small Arms Survey 2004: rights at risk (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), pp. 192-8.
37. The four interviews summarized here were conducted in Ghana, Senegal and Nigeria in 2004. The names have been withheld on request.
38. Cigarette smuggling seems to be closely associated with arms trafficking, Mouvement des Forces Démocratiques de la Casamance (MFDC) rebels in Casamance are also engaged in such smuggling and the bandit groups in northern Mali also engage in trans-Sahel trade. It appears also that the Algerian radical Groupe Salafiste pour la Prédication et le Combat during its Sahelian operations may have used cigarette smuggling to raise funds for weapons purchases in Mali. In early 2003 members of this group made headlines by kidnapping 31 tourists in the Sahara desert.
39. Ammunition manufactured in the United Kingdom, Germany and Belgium observed on sale in markets in Lomé, Abuja, Accra and Dakar during visits from Feb. to Nov. 2004.
40. Small Arms Survey, 'Armed groups and small arms in the ECOWAS region' (provisional title), forthcoming report, May 2005.
41. Abdel-Fatau Musa, 'Small arms and conflict transformation in West Africa', in Abdel-Fatau Musah and Niobe Thompson, Over a barrel: light weapons and human rights in the Commonwealth (London: Institute of Commonwealth Studies, 1999), p. 132.
42. Namdi Obasi, Small arms proliferation and disarmament in West Africa: progress and prospects of the ECOWAS moratorium (Abuja: Apophyl Productions, 2002), p. 81.
43. 'Improving the knowledge base on small arms in northern and central Nigeria', unpublished report for DFID Nigeria, 22 Feb. 2005, p. 17.
44. Interview with Jonathan Bearman, director at Clearwater Consulting, London, 11 May 2004. Clearwater carried out an independent investigation into bunkering for the federal government; Peace and security in the Niger Delta: Conflict Expert Group Baseline report, Working Paper for Shell Petroleum Development Company, Dec. 2003, p. 17.
45. Interview with federal police, Abuja, 25 Nov. 2004.
46. Examination by author of emailed photographs of the weapons, 15 Nov. 2004.
47. Information provided by federal police, Abuja, 25 Nov. 2004.
48. Interview with eyewitnesses, Port Harcourt, 20 March 2004.
49. Interview with Stephania Orgeh, from University of Nigeria in Nsukka, Abuja, 26 Nov. 2004.
50. 'Improving the knowledge base on small arms in northern and central Nigeria', p. v.
51. Small Arms Survey 1002: counting the human cost (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 47.
52. These talks started in 2001 (see Jane's Defence Weekly, 21 Feb. 2001), but the arms manufacturer Denel appears to have lost interest, causing friction between South Africa and Nigeria in 2005.
53. Martin Evans, Senegal: Mouvement des Forces Démocratiques de la Casamance (MFDC), briefing paper no. 2, Chatham House Africa Programme, Armed Non-State Actors Project, Dec. 2004.
54. Evans, Senegal.
55. Eric Berman, Re-armament in Sierra Leone: one year after the Lomé Peace Agreement, Small Arms Survey occasional paper, Dec. 2000.
56. Some disarmament efforts have been more successful, e.g. in Mali. See Robin-Edward Poulton and Ibrahim ag Youssouf, A peace of Timbuktu: democratic governance, development and African peacemaking (Geneva: UNIDIR, 1998).
57. Evans, Senegal.
58. International Campaign to Ban Landmines, Landmine Monitor Report 1999 (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1999), pp. 153-8.