Central Africa: Uganda Violates UN Arms Embargo
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The Monitor (Kampala)
March 17, 2006
Posted to the web March 16, 2006
Posted to the web March 16, 2006
Peter Nyanzi
Kampala
Kampala
UGANDA is one of the countries in the troubled Great Lakes region that continue to be actively involved in illegal arms trafficking in total violation of
United
Nations arms embargoes, a new report has said.
According to the report presented to the United Nations Security Council yesterday, UN arms embargoes are systematically being violated with impunity, fuelling human rights abuses in the region.
The report was prepared by the Control Arms Campaign, a joint initiative by Amnesty International, Oxfam International and the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA).
"Over the past 10 years, systematic violations of United Nations arms embargoes have met with almost no successful prosecutions. Unscrupulous arms dealers continue to get away with grave human rights abuses and make a mockery of the UN Security Council's efforts, " said Irene Khan, Amnesty International's Secretary General, in a press release yesterday. The group does not give specific details of individuals or entities involved in violating the arms embargoes.
Neither Uganda's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Sam Kuteesa nor state minister for
Information Dr James Nsaba Buturo could not be reached for a comment.
However, the Senior Presidential Adviser on the Media and Public Relations, Mr John Nagenda , dismissed the claims as baseless.
"I am sick and tired of organisations coming up with every charge against us," he said yesterday. "Let them bring evidence to back up their claims or shut up."
Binding treaty
Also on the list of countries engaged in the illicit arms trade are neighbours Rwanda and Sudan as are Burundi, Libya, the United Kingdom, South Africa and Russia, among several others.
Control Arms Campaign aims at reducing arms proliferation and misuse and to convince governments to introduce a binding arms trade treaty.
After its visit to the Great Lakes in November last year, a special UNSC Mission to the Great Lakes region expressed concern over the continuing violations of the arms embargoes imposed on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) by the Security Council.
The mission team, which met President Yoweri Museveni at Entebbe, urged Uganda to reinforce measures to prevent and deny the entry of arms into the Ituri region of the DRC under Resolution 1533 (2004).
The UNSC imposes arms embargoes as a last resort, usually once the humanitarian and human rights situation in a particular country reaches a crisis point.
Concerns
While adopting resolution 1653 (2006) on January 27 this year, the UNSC also expressed similar concerns, saying illegal arms trafficking continues in the region.
"[UNSC] calls on the
countries of the region to reinforce their cooperation with the Security Council's Committee and with the Group of Experts established by Resolution 1533 in enforcing the arms embargo in the DRC and to combat cross-border trafficking of illicit small arms, light weapons and illicit natural resources," the resolution, the most recent this year, said in part.
Travel ban
The UNSC instituted travel bans and freezing of assets for some of the individuals and entities involved in violating the arms embargo under Resolution 1596 (2005).
The list includes one Ugandan, Mr James Nyakuni and several Congolese and Rwandese.
But the report says despite hundreds of embargo breakers being named in UN reports, "only a handful have been successfully prosecuted."
The campaigners said the authority of the United Nations was being grea
tly
undermined by persistent violations of its arms embargoes.
According to the campaigners, every one of the 13 UN arms embargoes imposed in the last decade has been repeatedly violated.
Embargo busting
They claim that networks of arms dealers, brokers, financiers and traffickers, as well as companies around the world, are involved in embargo busting.
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"Unfortunately, very rarely do embargo busters get caught red handed with illegal weapons in a country subject to a UN arms embargo," the report said, adding that the UN system is so weak that chartered aircraft and cargo firms that are repeatedly used to break UN arms embargoes are often not grounded or closed down.
The Control Arms
campaigners have also stepped up action to demand Global controls to stop weapons especially small arms falling into the wrong hands, which would be a recipe for disaster as gangs use the guns to terrorise people and commit crimes.
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