Schedule of events during and contents of this report

DAY 1: 14 February 2010
- Civil Society Workshop on Arms Issues -
- Delhi Disarmament Conference -
- Concert for Peace, Disarmament and Towards an Arms Trade Treaty -

DAY 2: 15 February 2010
- March to Indian Parliament -
- Press Conference -
- Peace Vigil at Pragati Maidan -

DAY 3: 16 February 2010
United Nation’s Experts Conference Towards an Arms Trade Treaty
 - Sessions I to III -

DAY 4: 16 February 2010
United Nation’s Experts Conference Towards an Arms Trade Treaty:
- Sessions IV to VI -

CONCLUDING REMARKS

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For photographs of all events on days 1 and 2 please click
HERE

For photographs of the Experts Conference on days 3 and 4 please click
HERE

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Please also read articles published by different media on the events:

- A plea for peace and welfare -
LINK

- India ups defence spending as country battles poverty -
LINK

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Control Arms Foundation of India (CAFI) had partnered with the following leading organizations in India namely the following to make the events possible: Manipur Women Gun Survivors Network (MWGSN); South Asian Network of Gender Activists and Trainers (SANGAT), Ekta Parishad, Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF); Act Now for Harmony and Democracy (ANHAD ), South Asia People’s Alliance (SAPA), Global Gandhi Forum, Divya Jyoti Jagrati Sansthan(DJSS); Initiatives: Women in Development (IWID); People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL);  National Alliance of Anti-Nuclear Movements (NAAM);  Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CGBA);  KIRTI, New Delhi, Centre for Conflict Resolution & Human Security (CCRHS); Empower India;  India Resource Center; Commission for Justice, Peace and Development, Catholic Bishops' Conference of India (CBCI); National Alliance of  People’s Movement (NAPM), India Action Network (IAN), National Conference of Dalit Organizations (NACDOR); and South Asia Forum for Advocacy and Research (SAFAR).

DAY 1: 14 February 2010
Civil Society Workshop on Arms Issues
Indian Social Institute, New Delhi

The civil society workshop was attended by more than 60 participants from across India. it intended to train the participants on arms issues and on arms identification. Ms Binalakshmi Nepram from Control Arms Foundation of India conducted an exercise in which participants were trained to help identify several types of conventional arms.

Dr Uday Kumar from the National Alliance of Anti-Nuclear Movements (NAAM) made a presentation on “Militarization and Nuclearisation: The need for India to lead the way for Nuclear and Weapons Free World?” He gave a brief account of how India is increasingly becoming a military state and on India’s socio economic condition which he belived are at a dismal state.  He stated “Militarism is against decent living, Nuclearism is against life itself”. He concluded with the idea that Militarism and Nuclearism are a basic liability to our country, a hindrance to socio economic growth”.

Mr Ed Pomfret, Conflict & Humanitarian Campaigner, Oxfam GB, conducted a workshop on online campaigning. He talked about how going online through social networking sites can prove to be very effective and can reach a lot of people. He spoke on the how the magic of internet can take the ideas of a common man to a large number of people; and of the impact on diplomats and politicians, who are in a position to take decisions that affect a lot of people. He also talked about alternate tools in areas where there is low internet access. He talked about phone blogging, mobile videos, messaging text, pictures etc. He showed that campaigning can be done at the “grass root level”.

Mr Wilfred D'costa, General Secretary of Indian Social Action Forum (INSAF) then led the question from the floor with active interaction from the participants. He initiated the discussion by addressing these points:

- India only claims to be democratic but in effect not democratic.
- Only if a society is truly democratic can we put an end to the arms industry and civilians resorting to armed struggles.
- Increasing militarization of the Indian state and how it is favoring the MNCs.
- The aim being complete disarmament and solving our issues through political dialogue.

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DAY 1: 14 February 2010
Delhi Disarmament Conference
Alliance de Farncaise, New Delhi

The Delhi Disarmament conference at Alliance de Francaise was attended by participants from across the country. CAFI Volunteers from various colleges and universities from Delhi and Agra too attended the proceedings. The conference was chaired by Mr Babulal Sharma, from the Global Gandhi Forum, Ghaziabad, and began with a welcome address by Ms Binalakshmi Nepram, Secretary General, Control Arms Foundation of India and Founder of the Manipur Women Gun Survivor Network. The keynote address was made by Shri Silvius Conpan, Member of Parliament- Rajya Sabha.

This was followed by testimonies of survivors of armed violence were shared by Mr Phillem Johnson, who is a gun survivor from Moirang, Manipur and Mr Mohammed Gulzar Mir, a landmine survivor from Jammu & Kashmir.

Mr Ravinder Pal Singh, a Defence Analyst, Bangalore made a presentation on “India's defence expenditure verses social spending debate”. The basic point of his presentation was the need for a scientific method to normalize national security expenditure and the social security expenditure in our country. He further discussed India’s social problems with statistics in terms of four important indicators—health, infant mortality, hunger and poverty. He presented data pertaining to the past few years relating to social sector and defense allocations in the Union budget. The conclusion being defense share is relatively higher than social sector share. He stated the steps through which security sector governance for development and defense can be attained.

Ms Anna Ek, President, Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society also made a presentation on “Present proliferation of arms worldwide & efforts by civil society in Sweden & Europe to address the issue”. She basically talked about the ‘‘legal’’ arms market where governments buy from these multinational corporations. She talked extensively about the India, Pakistan arms race regarding these technologies to both the countries in conflict in a competitive manner.

Ms. Nandini from Ekta Parishad also shared her experiences from the field. She stated,“When our basic needs are not fulfilled, when we are deprived of our rights, we lead to violence. Violence is the violation of balance in the society”

The conference ended with the adoption of “The Delhi Resolution on Disarmament for Peace, Human Security & Development” that was to be submitted to the Honourable Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh, as well as the Honourable Ministers for Defence, External Affairs and Home.

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DAY 1: 14 February 2010
Concert for Peace, Disarmament and Towards an Arms Trade Treaty
Alliance de Francaise, New Delhi

Day 1 of events drew to a close with a special evening of music, poerty and dance.This event was special as Susmit Bose and Band and Eternal Bliss performed songs on peace. There was also a special tribute through dance to Irom Sharmila by Ms Charu Sharma.

The concert for peace, disarmament and towards an arms trade treaty began with a short film screening on recently concluded Convention on Cluster Munition, Make it Happen. Ms Aachal Kapur from KRITI was the compere for the evening and she began with the introduction of the two bands and Ms Charu Sharma, who performed a dance, based on a poem by Ms Irom Sharmila who has been on fast for the past 10 years against the Armed Forces Special Powers Act.

Mr Susmit Bose and his team took the crowd to a wonderful evening through his folk songs which he had composed, based on social causes from the Arms Trade treaty, to Jessica Lal and Dr Binayak Sen. Mr Susmit, an accomplished singer and musician is famous for his support for many social causes and he is also known as the Bob Dylan of India. Eternal Bliss, a band from the Divya Jyoti Jagrati Sansthan took the crowd by surprise with their lively music and the lead singer being a sanyasi.

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DAY 2: 15 February 2010
March to Indian Parliament

The March to the Indian Parliament was participated by more than 300 people fromdiverse background, including participants from different states and partner organization for the Delhi Disarmament Conference and Events. The march was lead by Ms Shabnam Hashmi, from Act Now for Harmony and Democracy (ANHAD).  Mr. Susmit Bose also sang a couple of songs for peace, disarmament and towards an Arms Trade Treaty.  The march to the parliament began with a lot of enthusiasm from young people, who called out to the Indian Government to make the Arms Trade happen.

As the march began towards the parliament the crowd was stopped by police, citing security reasons.  However, they allowed two person, including Mr Mohammed Gulzar Mir, landmine survivor from Jammu and Kashmir to submit the memorandum signed by CAFI and 21 civil society organization who had partnered for this event. The memorandum was submitted to the Honourable Prime Minister of India, Dr ManmohanSingh, as well as the Honourable Ministers for Defence, ExternalAffairs and Home.

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DAY 2: 15 February 2010
Press Conference

The press conference was held at Press Club of India, Raisina Road, New Delhi , and began with a welcome note by Ms Binalakshmi Nepram, Secretary General of CAFI. The media was also addressed by Mr Ravinder Pal Singh, Defence Analyst; Dr Udaykumar of National Alliance of Anti-Nuclear Movements, Mr Phillem Johnson, Gun Survivor from Manipur,  and Mr Mohammed Gulzar Mir, landmine survivor from Jammu & Kashmi.

Mr Ravinder Pal Singh stated that the Indian parliament should be more responsible when passing the defence budget. He also emphasized that the Parliament should discuss the details of the defence budget before it is approved. Both Mr Mohammed Gulzar Mir and Mr Phillem Johnson, a landmine survivor and a gun survivor respectively, said that Mine Ban Treaty as well as the Arms Trade Treaty should be signed by the government of India. The compensation for the victims of landmines, gun survivors etc are not adequate and hence the cost of medicine is more than the compensation, stated Mr Philem Johnson from Manipur, a gun survivor. Mr Mohammed Gulzar Mir said notifications about landmine areas should be given properly to the public and that mines should not be laid in civilian areas.

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DAY 2: 15 February, 2010
Peace Vigil
Pragati Maidan, New Delhi

The three day peace vigil outside Pragati Maidan, where the DefExpo 2010 was held from 15 to 18 February, was attended by participants and volunteers of CAFI. The volunteers and participants held placards and banners at the entrance of the Delhi DefExpo, 2010 and also distributed fliers and pamphlets to visitors, arm company representatives, army officials, Navy officials and also to the media. Many questions were generated and curious onlookers asked the purpose of the peace vigil. The media also took interest by covering the event in many papers, magazines and websites like the Hindu and other regional papers, India Today, Gulf News and the Associated Press.

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DAY 3: 16 February 2010
United Nation’s Experts Conference Towards an Arms Trade Treaty
- Sessions I to III -
India International Centre, New Delhi
9:30 am to 5:30 pm

The United Nation’s Expert Conference Towards an Arms Trade Treaty was a very interesting 2 days seminar which was attended by more than 60 participants on the first day. It was based on the broad theme Conference of Experts on strengthening sustainable peace and security in India and Southern Asia region and supporting progress through achieving an Arms Trade Treaty.

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Session I
Inauguration

The inaugural session was chaired by Lt General (Retd) Dr B.S .Malik, President, Control Arms Foundation of India. The welcome & introduction to the meeting by given by Ms Binalakshmi Nepram, Founder-Manipur Women Gun Survivor Network & Secretary-General, Control Arms Foundation of India. The inaugural address was given by Dr Manpreet Sethi, Centre for Air Power Studies (CAPS), New Delhi.

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Session II
Can the arms proliferation in India and southern Asiaregion be tackled only by the 2001 United Nations Programme of Actionon Small Arms and Light Weapons?

This session was chaired by Mr Pradip Phanjoubam, Editor, Imphal Free Press, Imphal. He opened the session by sharing his concern about the stateof Manipur, where insecurity has taken its toll on people’s lives. He also commented on how violence and the rampant use of arms seem to have become a legitimate tool for the state authorities.

Ms Katherine Nightingale gave a presentation on the “Arms Trade treaty: A reality by 2012?” She discussed the fact that the funds which the governments of different countries, spend on peace keeping are way less than those spent on arms. This she illustrated by showing photographs taken in countries like Guatimala, Uganda and Sierra Leone etc. The Arms Trade treaty is a result of the various made by a group of nobel laureates in 1990s; and Control arms in 2003. Katherine discussed the vital components of the Arms Trade Treaty. She further pointed out main areas of concerns for why an Arms Trade Treaty is required. She raised a number of relevant questions that an official needs to ask himself about Armed violence and such questions will make it imperative for any state to support the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). She ends her presentation with an open ended question that how can we ensure India’s support in ATT?

Colonel (retd) Hariharan, Former Head of Intelligence of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka, Chennai gave a presentation on  “Tackling Tools of Terror : How the Proposed Arms Trade Treaty can help tackle Non-State Armed Groups and Terrorist Organisations ?” He firstly raised three issues:

- Rising scourge of terrorism
- Relation between ATT and control of armed non-state groups
- Priorities for action

Further, he mentioned that there have been greater levels of violent extremism in South Asia in 2010 and in this context he presented data of terrorism fatalities in 2009 in which he compared India and Pakistan. Then he talks about illegal arms, which lead to more extortion, smuggling, laundering, human trafficking, forging of false passports etc. In south Asia there are no laws enforced to curb the free availability of illegal arms.

Col. Hariharan also discussed the fact that the world military expenditure had gone down in 2004, but it increased again in 2008. He showed through data the US military spending v/s World in 2008, where US spent 48% of the world’s military expenditure and Europe accounted for 20%. He opined that there has to be a synergy of nations as they are involved in strategy of nations. The Arms Trade Treaty according to him will ensure a universal commitment on No support to terrorism, will promote international cooperation and will ensure accountability from manufacturers. It will also neutralise threats to democratic government and will help poorer nations to reduce security budgets and augment social welfare. He suggested that there have to be two priorities of action, first, there has to be a public awareness about the ATT. Second, the youth must be involved.

Following the above presentations, the floor was opened for questions. Mr Nani Mahanta, from Guwahati University asked a question that there are many conventions that become defunct when the state refuses to cooperate and violence becomes the discourse when there is no possibility of getting peace, so how will the state respond to such problems. Ravindra Pal Singh also intervened and gave his suggestions. He said that most important is to bring about accountability and international law should be enshrined in national standards. According to him the implementation of ATT is necessary and needs a push from all areas.

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Session III
Shattered Lives: The Cost of Impact of Unregulated Arms Trade,
Transfers & Proliferation on People and Society in India 

Chair person Dr Raj Pushkar, People’s Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL), began the session by mentioning that as a human rights activist, conflict of violent nature affects people and leads to very adverse situations. There are conflict zones where tribals and civilians are dying due to extreme weaponisation and the love for weapons. He also raised the adverse consequences of armed conflict on child psychology. He then introduced Mr Pradip Dutta who gave his presentation on ‘Armed Violence and small arms Proliferation in Jammu & Kashmir’.

Mr. Pradip Datta started his presentation by saying that the first thing that comes to mind while talking about Jammu and Kashmir is arms and violence and not flora and fauna. Both countries Pakistan and India have either a swing of peace or swing of hostility and every time there is a move towards reconciliation, then there is an outburst through small arms. Here he said-“Power flows through battle of gun.” He then showed the data of different types of guns from 2003-2009. He further mentioned that there is over 50000 kg of explosives in Pakistan and detinators are fitted everywhere. Infra structure is under attack, which has environmental costs also. There is a need to look into people’s interests.

Mr Nihar Nayak then spoke on Naxal violence, unregulated arms proliferation and its costs on India’s development. In his presentation he showed the key elements of maoist ideology and how do they justify armed struggle. It is the arms that assumes central role for Maoists. He then showed the data of the civilian casualties in Naxal violence. He then discussed the sources of these arms and the arms routes. Towards the end he mentioned in the article 2010 of Unesco there is a mention that the Maoists have already destroyed 300 schools. He concluded by saying that ‘Peace can come through negotiations only.’

The third speaker of the session, Mr Nani Mahanta, spoke on the Impact of unregulated arms, trade, transfers & Proliferation on people and society: Case of Northeast India and neighbouring countries.

Nandlal Master of Uttar Pradesh, talked about kattas, home made weapons manufacturing and its impact in Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring states. He in his speech mentioned the fact that making a small weapon like katta is a very easy process, and there is no place in UP where there is no manufacturing unit of such home made weapons and hence are easily available. Almost everyone carries a katta as a weapon for their protection hence there is rampant availability of weapons which leads to an increase in the armed violence in Uttar Pradesh and the neighbouring states.

The first day of the conference ended with CAFI-president Lt General (retd) B.S. Malik thanking all the speakers and participants for their contributions.

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DAY 4: 14 February 2010
United Nation’s Experts Conference Towards an Arms Trade Treaty
- Session IV to VI -
India International Centre, New Delhi
9:30 am to 5:30 pm

This session was conducted by Ms Binalakshmi Nepram, CAFI and Colonel(retd) Hariharan, former Head of Intelligence of the Indian PeaceKeeping Force in Sri Lanka, Chennai. It looked at Conventional arms, small arms and light weapons : Definitions etc; Facts About Arms and Arms Spending; Tracing the dynamics of the illicit arms trade; Arms life cycle; Arms transfers and Summary of principles for an International Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). Mr Anthony Debbarma, from the Borok People’s Human addressed on “How weapons get to war zones?”

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Session V
India and trends in global arms trade, transfers and trade

The session was chaired by Major General (retd) Nilendra Kumar, Former Judge Advocate General. Defence analyst Ravinder Pal Singh presented on “Defence and development expenditure debate in India”, where he points out that there is a very important need to harmonise social and defence expenditure. He strongly criticised the idea that that a part of expenditure should come out from the defence sector and allocated in social sector. Instead there has to be a mechanism to understand where in social sectors there need to be the allocation of funds. He further talked about the technology convergence for development.

Another important point that he brought about in his discussion is the fact that it is not correct to see only one GDP of India. The GDP of India exists at two levels-one for the poor India and the other for the richer or higher India, because the GDP of poor India does not even show in the GDP indicator. He also pointed out that there should be a defence asset conversion. Land in the defence sector is under utilised and hence such a conversion has to be considered.

Ms Juliee Sharma from CAFI in her presentation on ‘India’s arms Act and busting the myth that an Arm’s Trade Treaty will end India’s production and trade in arms’, gave a detailed history of the India’s arms act and what the word ‘arms’ has come to mean historically. She further discussed the legality of all the clauses of the Arms Trade Act. Finally, she gave few suggestions like:

- to have a census of firearms
- to have a Government mechanism to strictly have the licenses of arms
- Governmett to not spread the knowledge of making arms like kattas
- to have regular inspections of records
- to have periodical assessments

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Session VI
Building Alliances for a Sustainable and Secure India and for taking on the call
to Government of India to make an Internationale Arms Trade Treaty to Make happen by 2012

Chair person Dr. Tasneem Meenai, Centre for Peace & Conflict Resolution, Jamia Millia Islamia, opened the closing session of the conference. Then Mr A Sankar talked about his organisation EMPOWER India and expressed his organisation’s support in all the initiatives taken up by Control Arms Foundation of India.

Dr. Neelavali from the IWID (Initiatives: Women in Development) suggested that there is a need to consolidate the supporters and the need to pursue the opponents. She further commented that there is need to see the solution and not keep talking about the problems alone. In the end, she concluded by saying that traditionally men have been engaged in the warfare and women in welfare, and now it’s high time that women through their welfare instincts make policy changes directed towards peace building.

Ms Rita Roy of SAPA (South Asia Peace Alliance) expressed her support towards Arms Trade Treaty and all the initiatives of the Control Arms Foundation of India. In order to convince the government of India to give its support for the ATT there has to be a dialogue and a networking with the parliament. There needs to be appropriate documentation, raising public awareness. Also, parents of children need to be taught that children should not be made to play with war toys because the young minds are very impressionable. Lastly, there has to be an effort to make an alliance by all the groups who are working for the same cause.

Mr. Pilaram who represented Ekta Parishad thanked the gathering and extended his full support to the initiative that CAFI has taken. But he also suggested that this should not be the end and there should be more meetings like these.

Towards the end Mr Ravinder Pal Singh also gave a few suggestions that there is a need to explore other areas of the democratic space. There is a need to impart peace education and to analyse and not overlook the leakages in the implementation of policies. To this, Katherine Nightangle added that there is a meeting on the Arms Trade Treaty in the UN General Assembly in July and India needs to have a clear position.

CAFI secretary general Binalakshmi Nepram commented that there are two layers of organisations. First who are grappling with the issue of disarmament for the first time, at a lesser level and the others who are involved since a long time. So there is a need to incorporate both these types of organisations. Also she pointed out that Indian government does not say no to the idea of supporting the Arms Trade Treaty, but they themselves do not know what to do so we need to give them expertise.

Dr Tasneem Meenai concluded the session by saying that this is a huge opportunity and we must use it and not let it go waste. On the same note, Col. Hariharan suggested that Ms Binalakshmi Nepram could take an appointment and meet the country’s number one gun survivor Mrs Sonia Gandhi. Ms Nepram responded by saying that she has met the prime minister and also Shashi Tharoor and they promised that they would get back. She also mentioned that on 18th January 2010, India has already spread a circular asking the various departments for their opinions about the ATT. For the same, Mr. Ravinder Pal Singh agreed on preparing a memorandum for the MPs.

Mr Pilaram said that there will be a march of all the survivors and they would submit their memorandum to the Prime minister by June 10th. On this, Mr. Ed Pomfret suggested that it would be nice to make the march as big as possible involving about 2012 people from each village symbolising the reality of ATT by 2012, but another suggestion came about that if the numbers are too much then there will be a bottlenecks and the main issue shall be lost somewhere.

Finally, chair Tasneem Meenai stated, stated “Just over the hill there is a beautiful valley, but in order to see that you need to climb the hill first.”

Elizabeth Imti gave a vote of thanks to everyone present there and also to the alliance partners, volunteers and staff of CAFI.

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Concluding Remarks

The "Delhi Disarmament Events and nited Nations Arms Trade Treaty Experts Conference 2010"  proved very successful and productive as for the first time, more than 20 civil society organizations from across the country from different social causes stood together to raise its concerns at the presence of several hundred arms companies which came for India Defence Expo 2010.

Also all organizations came together and submitted a memorandum to the Government of India calling for India to sign several disarmament treaties such as Mine Ban Treaty, Convention on Cluster Munition. Also a call was made to the government of India to support the United Nations process to make the Arms Trade Treaty to happen by 2012.

The conference and events ended with the understanding that academicians, research institutes, civil societies must work together in solidarity to engage the government in disarmament processes. The conference gave renewed strength and conviction to the participants and gave them confidence that their voices are getting more audible and articulated.

One of the major successes of the “Delhi Disarmament Events and nited Nations Arms Trade Treaty Experts Conference 2010” was that it gave the participants opportunity to come together to inspire each other since testimonies from real gun and landmine survivors were related by the victims themselves. All participants were united in their belief that if they work together in solidarity they can make a difference in the field of arms control. (Ends)