Business and International Crimes
European Small Arms and the perpetuation
of Violence
The international problem of small arms
Small arms and light weapons1 (SALW) are the weapons of choice in the majority of armed conflicts across the globe. Violence from terrorists, rebel groups, paramilitaries, organised criminals and even state forces today poses a primary threat to international peace, human security, and economic development. The victims of this violence are predominantly located in the developing world.
Relatively small and often poorly financed groups can perpetuate international chaos today because they have access to simple, mobile, inexpensive and highly lethal weaponry. This access comes via the international market in small arms and light weapons - including both the legal and the illegal markets. The proliferation of small arms through these markets has enabled groups in many parts of the world to challenge government authority and has resulted in several 'failed states'. Endemic criminal violence, especially in the developing world, has also challenged legal authority and accounted for hundreds of thousands of deaths every year.
The spread of illicit small arms and light weapons is a global threat to human security and human rights. At least 500,000 people die every year as a result of the use of small arms and light weapons. Of the estimated 4 million warrelated deaths during the 1990s, 90 per cent of those killed were civilians, and 80 per cent of those were women and children, mostly victims of the misuse of small arms and light weapons. In addition, tens of millions more people have lost their livelihoods, homes and families because of the indiscriminate and pervasive use of these weapons.
Developed countries, most notably the US, also suffer from high rates of gun related death and suffering, which includes organised crime, domestic violence and suicide. The problem of the proliferation of small arms has received considerable international attention from world leaders, governments, and international organisations. The most high profile event was in July 2001 when the United Nations held an international governmental conference on the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons.
The EU dimension
The EU is a major producer and exporter of small arms and their ammunition (accounting for approximately a third of the global trade). Accession candidate countries to the EU in Central Europe are also important small arms exporters.
Despite a series of efforts to reduce the licit and illicit flows of Small Arms from Europe , organisations such as Amnesty International continue to report on widespread sale and delivery of weapons from the EU, and by EU nationals and residents, to parties which use them to commit war crimes and human rights abuses. These waters may further be muddied by the accession to the EU of countries from Central and Eastern Europe that have previously been implicated in questionable small arms transactions. Furthermore, despite its self-image as a relatively disarmed continent, some European states, particularly in Scandinavia, have both comparatively high rates of civilian possession of firearms (as high as 50% of households in Finland) and correspondingly high rates of death by firearms (particularly by suicide).
In the study of small arms issues, Europe has a lead in an emerging discipline. Small arms research, as opposed to the traditional study of the production, trade, procurement, and use, of major conventional weapons, was established little more than five years ago. Since then European institutions have lead the development of methodologies, data sources, and dissemination. Small arms research has quickly come of age because it has been undertaken at universities and research institutes with pre-existing and relevant expertise. Research on small arms also has implications for the wider Social Sciences. Theories and models developed in fields such as International Relations, International Political Economy, Political Science, Development Economics, and Criminology will continue to benefit from research on small arms. One pertinent example is the ongoing research into the economics of civil wars, which has emphasised the importance of 'lootable resources' such as diamonds in financing an insurgency. As resources are flown out of war zones, small arms and light weapons (most often the ubiquitous Kalashnikov) are flown in - often by the same traffickers. The existence of a black market supply of SALW is as important to an insurgency as access to natural resources.
In the fall of 2003, the Peace Research Institute in Oslo PRIO, initiated an European Research Network on Small Arms and Violence. With funding from the COST programme of the EU, this project will bring together researchers from European countries in a 3-year program to undertake research along thre main tracks:
· European Small Arms Transfers
· Armed Violence
· Methodological challenges
The network is coordinated by Nic Marsh form the Norwegian Initiative on Small Arms Transfers. Fafo is part of the Management Committee.
Project Manager
Christian H Ruge
Publications
External links
The Norwegian Initiative on Small Arms Transfers
www.nisat.org