wfn.org | LWF - Curbing Illicit Trafficking in Small Arms and Light Weapons

["Frank Imhoff" <FRANKI@elca.org>]

"There Is No Compatibility Between the Proliferation Of Small Arms
and the Proliferation Of Peace"
LWF General Secretary Addresses Advisory Group on Curbing Illicit
Trafficking in Small Arms and Light Weapons

GENEVA, 20 August 2002 (LWI) -  "There is no compatibility between
the proliferation of small arms and the proliferation of peace,"
was the central message of Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko, the general
secretary of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), at the first
meeting of the advisory group of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG)
on Curbing Illicit Trafficking in Small Arms and Light Weapons.

"All arms may be considered illegal when they are used to violate
the basic principles of human rights," said Noko in London on
Friday, 16 August. Noko co-chairs the EPG advisory group together
with Richard Mugisha of People With Disabilities of Uganda.

The EPG advisory group is an independent grouping of
secretaries-general of large movement-based non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) and representatives of country-based NGOs
from those parts of the world most affected by small arms
violence. The advisory group is charged with providing strategic
advice to the EPG in its efforts to help eradicate the illicit
proliferation of small arms and light weapons and to implement the
program of action adopted by the July 2001 UN Conference on the
Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects.

Addressing the members of the advisory group, the LWF general
secretary emphasized "the need for effective state control of the
small arms industry and of transfers of small arms."  According to
Noko, "humanitarian aid organizations, organized civil society,
religious communities and all concerned individuals will be key to
creating the political will to establish a comprehensive and
effective regime, and to holding manufacturers accountable to it."

However, "even without further unregulated flows of small arms and
light weaponry, the existing levels of availability of such
weapons in many societies in Africa and elsewhere will be
sufficient to ensure a continuing harvest of death and
destabilization for generations to come," warned Noko.  He
therefore called upon the UN to put more emphasis on the recovery
and destruction of weapons, especially in post-conflict
situations.

Noko also drew the attention of the advisory group to the
inter-relationship between poverty and the transfer of small arms:
"While the violence and destabilization resulting from the
widespread and unregulated availability of small arms obviously
results in deeper and more widespread poverty, poverty itself
promotes the further penetration of weapons throughout the
society." In addition to establishing monitoring regimes and
weapons recovery and destruction programs, it will be "essential
for the peace we all seek, to work at the same time for the
eradication of extreme poverty and to assure an adequate standard
of living for all people," the LWF general secretary concluded.
(459 words)

The full text of the statement by Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko is
available on the LWF website
http://www.lutheranworld.org/What_We_Do/OIahr/Documentation/EPG-AG_August_2002.pdf

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund (Sweden), the LWF now
has 133 member churches in 73 countries representing over 61.7
million of the 65.4 million Lutherans worldwide. The LWF acts on
behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as
ecumenical relations, theology, humanitarian assistance, human
rights, communication, and the various aspects of mission and
development work. Its secretariat is located in Geneva,
Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the information service of
the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). Unless specifically noted,
material presented does not represent positions or opinions of the
LWF or of its various units. Where the dateline of an article
contains the notation (LWI), the material may be freely reproduced
with acknowledgment.]

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