Indian Govt asked to support arms pact

Dimapur, September 26 (MExN): As a part of a 12-day international campaign from International Day of Peace to International Day of Non-Violence, the Control Arms Foundation of India (CAFI) in collaboration with United Nations Information Centre organized a two-day  experts’ round-table conference. It was themed “Armament, Disarmament & Non- Proliferation: Continuing our quest for strengthening sustainable peace and security in India and Southern Asia region and understanding the United Nations Process for a proposed Arms Trade Treaty.”  The event was held on the 23rd and 24th September at the UN Conference Hall in New Delhi.

The conference looked into the various issues of armament, disarmament and non-proliferation efforts that have held the attention of the world and India in particular after the terror attacks in Mumbai. It also looked into the recently concluded historic consensus at the United Nations where most of the UN member states agreed that international action is needed to address the problem of unregulated arms trade and transfer.

The conference was observed with active participation of experts, diplomats, government officials from Ministry of Defense and Ministry of External Affairs, defense and security analyst, military personnel, delegates of the arms and defense industries, parliamentarians, journalists, lawyers, rights groups and survivors of armed violence.

Arundhati Ghose, India’s former Ambassador to the United Nations on Disarmament, in her address stated “it is India that needs to be reminded on non-violence and not the rest of the world. The message has come back to us.” She said small arms are becoming weapons of mass destruction and regulations are  a must.

More than 640 million small arms and light weapons are estimated to be in circulation worldwide, which are directly responsible for killing 300,000 people in armed conflict and 200,000 more in homicide and suicide, every year. In India alone 12 people die of gun shots every day.

At present, it is impossible to monitor or interrupt this deadly flow of weapons. This is because there are no agreed global standards for governments when authorizing exports or transfers. Recognizing that there is a strong need for a global Arms Trade Treaty to regulate international arms transfer the United Nations have started working in this direction after a remarkable number of 153 States voted in favor of an ATT resolution for establishing common international standards for imports and exports and transfer of conventional arms.

“In recent decades, the States have adopted wide-ranging prohibitions and limitations on the transfer of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. Yet it is conventional weapons- that are causing most of the death and injury in today’s conflicts. Until recently, however, the transfer of conventional weapons had received little attention at the global level.  And hence the need for common global standards in this field, to achieve consistent approaches to arms transfer decision-making among States”, said Francois Stamm, Regional Delegate of the International Committee of the Red Cross in New Delhi.

Dr. Anuradha Reddy from the Defense Research & Development Organization (DRDO), Ministry of Defense, Government of India added “sophisticated weapons are easily available in the hands of terrorist or non state actors. There is a need for efficient handling of terror stricken weapons”.

“The government should take strict actions against these irresponsible arms trading which fuels conflict and should take the responsibility to help victims like me. The plights of widow like me and thousands of others are of no consequence to the government of my state” said Ms. Renu Hangzo, a woman gun survivor from Manipur who lost her husband and is presently supported by Manipur Women Gun survivors Network. The conference was a step towards the negotiation on the arms trade treaty that will reconvene in October 2009 at the United Nations First Committee on Disarmament.

The article appeared on September 26, 2009 in the Morung Express published in Nagaland.

For the CAFI press release on the event please click HERE.