CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Whether it is Africa, Sri Lanka, or even Chechnya and Afghanistan, it is not heavy weaponry or hi-tech devices that kill the most people, but the flood of cheap, easy to get, Small Arms and Light Weapons that has swept over so many countries. Yet a lot of this cross-border arms trade is illegal.1 Relying on highly organized international logistical structures, criminals trespass territorial boundaries, whilst law enforcement agents act within the confines of domestic law to counter the proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons. Report has it that Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) are responsible for the majority of battle-related conflict deaths, an estimated 60-90 percent of all direct conflict victims are killed with firearms. Large numbers of men, women, older people and children die indirectly from the effects of armed conflict on the economy, ruined health and security infrastructures, disease and famine2. Ironically, the use of these weapons is common to the global South. For instance Africa is one of such places because of its vulnerability to different kinds of conflicts including ethnic and religious crisis.
The relation between the accessibility of SALW and the outbreak and severity of conflict is more dramatically evident in West Africa. Liberia was the first to suffer. With only 100 irregular soldiers armed primarily with AK-47 assault rifles, Insurgent leader
Charles Taylor invaded the country and within months, he had seized mineral and timber resources and used the profits to purchase additional light weapons. Had he needed to equip his forces with heavier weapons such as artillery, armored cars and tanks—the weapons conventionally associated with a conquering army—Taylor would have faced crippling logistical obstacles. In comparison, a few boatloads of assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns were simple to transport and provided more than enough firepower3.
The firepower of modern SALW —and the rapid escalation of violence that such weaponry makes possible—was evident even in the early stages of Liberia’s civil war. Much the same cycle of violence engulfed in Rwanda, with SALW as the primary weapon of the day. Once competing groups have been armed with SALW, any minor dispute can escalate quickly into a major bloodbath. And the availability of such weapons, even in remote and inaccessible places makes it difficult for the International community to bring the warring parties to the bargaining table and, curb the cycle of bloodletting. Brokering peace has proved especially difficult in countries such as Angola and Sierra Leone, where rebel forces have been able to exchange diamonds or other commodities for guns and ammunition on the black market.
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