FW: U.N. conference on arms ends in failure
Date: Jul 10, 2006 8:14 AM

—–Original Message—–
From: Dave Tomlinson [[email protected]]
Sent: Sunday July 9, 2006 1:23 PM
To: NFA Member Digest
Subject: UN Conference

U.N. conference on arms ends in failure
NICK WADHAMS
July 7, 2006
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS – A two-week U.N. conference reviewing efforts to fight
the illegal weapons trade ended in failure Friday, with nations too
divided on too many contentious issues to agree on the best way to
combat a scourge that fuels conflict worldwide.

After days of negotiations, delegates gave up their bid to agree on an
“outcome document” meant to reflect their consensus on the most serious
threats and the best way to fight the illegal trade in small arms, worth
about $1 billion a year.

“It’s a squandered opportunity,” said Anthea Lawson, spokeswoman with
the International Action Network on Small Arms. “It’s preposterous
especially when there was so much will from so many countries to do
something.”

The conference was reviewing progress made toward achieving a 2001
program of action to curb the illicit sale of pistols, assault rifles,
machine guns and other light weapons.

The global trade in small arms is worth about $4 billion a year, of
which a fourth is considered illegal, according to the annual Small Arms
Survey, an authoritative report on such weapons. The arms cause 60
percent to 90 percent of all deaths in conflicts every year.

The event was largely done in by the need for all nations to agree on
every element of the final document, rather than to approve proposals by
an up-or-down vote.

The collapse reflected just how contentious the discussion of the small
arms trade has become. Many nations refuse to disclose the extent of
their small-arms trade, and are unwilling to discuss restrictions on
ammunition and national gun ownership, selling weapons to non-state
actors and tracing weapons back to their original seller.

Cuba, India, Iran, and Pakistan were among the nations that spoke out
against an NGO proposal for governments to agree to a set of global
principles on the arms trade. At its heart is a promise to make sure
they don’t sell weapons to buyers who could then pass them on illegally.

And there was widespread support for a call to hold a similar conference
five years from now. The United States, however, opposed.

“You had a few governments that were holding out and not compromising,
said Nicholas Marsh, with the International Peace Research Institute in
Oslo, and an adviser to the Norwegian delegation.

Despite the failure, delegates planned to raise many of the same issues
in the U.N. disarmament committee – where consensus is not needed for
agreement – to begin preparing a treaty that would make law out of many
of the global principles supported by non-governmental groups.

Some delegates said the meeting was doomed from the start. It took six
days to get through speeches by nations, then the conference suspended
work for the July 4 holiday. Negotiations on the final text only began
Wednesday.

“Whether we would have been able to agree on the document – I don’t
think so,” said Prasad Kariyawasam, Sri Lanka’s U.N. ambassador and
president of the conference. “I think at this point it was that views
among parties with regard to how to follow up did not converge.”

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