Economy & Trade, Global, Global Geopolitics, Headlines, Human Rights

POLITICS: Arms Control Group Targets the Ubiquitous AK-47

Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 27 2006 (IPS) - The Soviet-designed AK-47, one of the most widely used weapons of choice by myriads of guerrilla fighters worldwide, was so popular with the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) that it glorified the assault rifle by putting its image on the country’s post-war national flag.

Since its creation in 1947 by Lieutenant-General Mikhail Kalashnikov, the AK-47 “is manufactured in more countries and is being used to cause more widespread suffering today than at any time in its 60-year history”, according to a study by the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA).

At the opening of a two-week U.N. conference on small arms Monday, IANSA launched a worldwide campaign to control the production and sale of the “world’s worst regulated weapon”.

The London-based IANSA, which includes Oxfam International and Amnesty International, said the widespread availability of surplus AK-47s (also known as Kalashnikovs), and the absence of global standards and laws to regulate their transfer, make it easy for the weapons to fall into the hands of unscrupulous arms brokers, armed militias and criminals.

Even the weapon’s inventor, the 86-year-old Kalashnikov, “is calling for tougher controls”, IANSA said.

In a study titled “AK-47: the World’s Favourite Killing Machine”, released Monday, IANSA said there are up to 100 million Kalashnikovs and variations of its design in the world today.

“They are found in the state arsenal of at least 82 countries and are produced in at least 14 countries. This is set to increase with Venezuela recently signing a deal for the local assembly of the weapons, the first of its kind in the Americas,” IANSA warned.

Early this year, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez ordered 100,000 AK-47s from Russia, of which the first 30,000 were delivered in early June. The arms deal also includes the future licensed production of the weapon in Venezuela.

The AK-47, which can fire at a rate of 600 bullets per minute, can be purchased for as little as 30 dollars in parts of Africa, according to IANSA. More than 50 to 60 percent of weapons used in the current conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are either AK-47s or their derivatives.

Just prior to the opening of the U.N. conference Monday, arms control activists handed over the world’s largest visual petition, “The Million Faces Petition”, to U.N. Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, calling for tougher arms controls.

Asked if anything positive or productive can come out of the small arms conference, Oxfam spokesperson Caroline Green said: “We are calling on governments to agree to strong global principles to control the global arms trade.”

Specifically, she said, these principles would regulate all aspects of small arms and weapons transfers to make sure they do not end up in the hands of human rights abusers and criminals.

“This would act as a tool to help ensure that no state could authorise the transfer of weapons such as the AK-47 if those weapons would be used to violate international law such as arms embargoes, or if they were likely to be used for violations of human rights or international humanitarian law,” Green told IPS.

A set of transfer principles will be tabled at this week’s U.N. conference, and “We are looking to governments to agree to them and stop the deadly flow of weapons that fuel conflict, increase poverty and kill up to 1,000 men, women and children every day,” she said.

Later this year, the 191-member U.N. General Assembly should move towards agreeing on an Arms Trade Treaty that will cover all conventional weapons, she added.

Asked if a proposed arms treaty could control the unregulated flow of weapons such as the AK-47, Anthea Lawson of IANSA told IPS: “This meeting won’t be the forum for agreeing a treaty. However, there is considerable support for global principles or guidelines setting out universal criteria for small arms transfers.”

She pointed out that these would have all states operating to the same standard when making decisions about whether an arms export should go ahead, with sales or transfers being refused if there was a chance they would contribute to human rights violations, fuel conflict, or hinder sustainable development.

Such global principles would be an elaboration of the existing commitments that were made in the Programme of Action in 2001, in which states said they would regulate their arms transfers in line with their existing responsibilities under international law, Lawson added.

She said the problem is that there is no agreed understanding of what these responsibilities are.

Green of Oxfam said there is broad support across the globe for strong international arms controls. The West African leaders last week signed a convention that contains principles very similar to those called for by Oxfam and the arms control campaign.

“The West African convention will be legally binding and very strong, covering exports, imports, production and ammunition,” she pointed out.

A group of states representing every region in the world met in Nairobi and agreed to a set of principles, and these will be tabled in New York at this conference.

Other regional agreements are already in place in East Africa and Central America, and include the European Union’s Code of Conduct on Transfers.

Green also said that 45 states have already signaled their support for strong arms controls in the form of an Arms Trade Treaty. These include Argentina, Brazil, Kenya, Britain, Germany, France, Mali, Senegal and many others. No state has come out explicitly against an Arms Trade Treaty, she added.

Lawson of IANSA said that different countries oppose different aspects of controlling the proliferation of guns. Russia, China, Egypt, Iran, for example, are unhappy about making progress on international arms transfers at this meeting, an issue on which there is now growing consensus.

The United States is vehemently opposed to discussion of national gun laws, something that is supported by many states in, for example, Latin America.

Irene Khan, secretary general of Amnesty International, is equally critical of the unregulated flow of small arms. “The AK-47 is a symbol of the way in which the arms trade has run amok, destroying lives and livelihoods. Only global rules to control who produces the weapons and to whom they are sold will ensure that they don’t fall into the wrong hands,” she said.