Possible Contribution to the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe

CHAIRMAN'S SUMMARY

Sponsored by the Government of Slovenia, the Workshop on Small Arms and Light Weapons was held in Ljubljana on 27 January 2000, under the auspices of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe. The workshop was organized in the framework of the follow-up activities since the first meeting of the Working Table on security issues held in Oslo last October. Twenty-nine countries involved in the Stability Pact participated in the Workshop. Representatives of the Special Co-ordinator of the Stability Pact, the European Commission, the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, and NATO also attended. Among participants there were also the representatives of non-governmental organizations the ICRC, the International Alert and the Saferworld.

In his opening address Dr Boris Frlec, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia, highlighted the negative security, social and economic effects of large quantities of small arms and light weapons in South Eastern Europe. He underlined the need for co-ordinated approach by the Stability Pact participants to address this problem and called for new incentives and ideas that would include effective assistance programmes.

The Deputy Special Co-ordinator of the Stability Pact stressed the importance of synergy between the Stability Pact activities on small arms and the existing initiatives in other fora (notably UN, OSCE, EAPC, and EU). He underlined the need to avoid duplication and to make the best use of available experience, such as Gramsh or Mali projects.

The Chairman of the workshop Roman Kirn, State Under-secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovenia, recalled the multitude of ongoing processes and activities concerning small arms and stressed the complementarity of global, regional and national measures for dealing with the small arms problem. These measures should take into account the relevant experience and best practices and should include promotion and application of existing instruments such as EU Code of Conduct for arms exports and EU Joint Action on small arms and light weapons. While addressing the question of destabilizing accumulation of small arms and light weapons in the region, the global dimension of this problem should always be kept in mind. The workshop should be seen as an opportunity to analyze the regional specifics of the small arms issue, to identify the elements for possible joint action, as well as to search for adequate mechanisms for providing long-term assistance in the framework of the Stability Pact.

During the two working sessions, the contributions and discussions focused on the origins, dimensions and specifics of the problem of small arms and light weapons in the South Eastern Europe and on possible measures to deal with this problem. The role of these weapons in the national security doctrines, the ethnic and regional traditions, the gun culture, the relatively simple production technology, the easiness of use, the long shelf life and the recent armed conflicts were identified among the reasons for excessive quantities of small arms and light weapons in the area and for their misuse. The uncontrolled or illegal transfer of large numbers of these weapons was deemed to have contributed to the tensions, conflicts and instability in the region. Special emphasis was placed on the connection between uncontrolled spread of small arms and terrorist activities or organized crime.

The participants welcomed the Istanbul Declaration on Small Arms and Light Weapons of 18 November 1999, which reflects common understanding and political will of the countries in the region to work together in solving the problem of SALW.

The workshop noted several announcements of various meetings on small arms and light weapons in the near future: a seminar on SALW stockpile management and security to be held under the auspices of the EAPC in Thun, Switzerland, in March 2000; two workshops organized by the EAPC in march 2000; the OSCE seminar on SALW in Vienna, on 3-5 April 2000; a joint Macedonian-Swiss workshop on SALW in the framework of EAPC to be held in Macedonia in June 2000; a joint Bulgarian-Canadian seminar on small arms collection and destruction techniques, to be held in Sofia in the fall of 2000.

Numerous ideas were put forward for possible specific measures to reduce the threat posed by excessive accumulation and spread of small arms and light weapons. A proposal was made to increase transparency of arms transfers by expanding the UN Register on conventional arms transfers so as to include small arms and light weapons. Repeatedly, it was stated that the surplus small arms and light weapons ought to be destroyed, not just stored or sold. Several speakers stressed the need for greater cross-border and enhanced region-wide co-operation, for strengthening of existing structures and related legislation in the countries of the region and for financial support for equipment and training of relevant enforcement agencies, for safe storage and destruction of SALW and ammunition, as well as for conversion of the excessive or obsolete production facilities. There was general agreement that a suitable regional approach would be useful, as it would reflect most appropriately the idea of ownership and commitment by the countries involved.

The representative of the EU Commission provided the information about existing EU practices, documents, instruments and initiatives on SALW. He stressed the importance of developing a comprehensive regional Action Plan that would be helpful in designing concrete projects/proposals and programs of assistance. Such a plan should be developed along with other ongoing activities.

Croatia presented its experience with the programme for re-establishment of control over SALW after disruption caused by war. The programme that ran from 1992 to 1999 was costly but successful. Based on this experience, there are several conditions for such programmes to succeed, including the political will, co-operation of citizens, planning and time-lines, setting up of an organisation for implementation and securing financial resources.

Strong interest was expressed for the idea of establishment of a Trust Fund as an effective long-term financing mechanism for funding the projects on small arms and light weapons in the framework of the Stability Pact. It was suggested that this idea be elaborated further, in greater detail, and presented to the Sarajevo meeting of the Working Table on security issues, as well as to the donor conference scheduled to take place in March 2000.

The representative of Macedonia underlined the concern of his Government over the recent events in its neighbourhood which ensued in large quantities of uncontrolled small arms and light weapons that feed illegal flows into Macedonia. He announced the intention of Macedonia to propose, possibly at the next meeting of Working Table on security issues, a project to collect small arms and light weapons in Albania, Macedonia and in Kosovo, FR Yugoslavia. The estimated cost of this project, which would begin this year and end in 2001, would be approximately 4 million USD. There was particularly strong interest of the workshop for this project.

There was a general view that concrete and action-oriented approach is needed, in order to respond to already identified requirements and needs of the countries in the region. The affected countries were encouraged to continue to clearly specify their needs, so that the donor countries could speedily respond with pledges of assistance. Many participants indicated the readiness to provide various forms of assistance; Hungary offered to provide facilities for destruction of SALW, including ammunition and explosives, using environmentally friendly techniques. NATO expressed readiness to dispatch, in the framework of its SEE Initiative, specially tailored teams of experts in the fields like tracing and marking of SALW who could provide expertise to PfP and other countries upon their request. Germany indicated it was prepared to offer expertise, as well as technical and financial assistance. The United States offered to provide immediate technical assistance in the form of destruction and security expert teams upon request of countries concerned. Also, immediate financial and technical assistance could be made available through the Norway-US joint working group on destruction of SALW.

In accordance with the conclusions of the Oslo meeting of the Working Table on security issues (13-14 October 1999), Slovenia will report on the outcome of the workshop to the next meeting of the Working Table to be held in Sarajevo on 15-16 February 2000.