AFRICANEWS Views and news on peace, justice and reconciliation in Africa November 2001 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ChildRights Sudan/Uganda/Kenya Government officials involved in small arms flows: reports Conflict By Cathy Majtenyi ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ At a conference held recently in Uganda, researchers studying the flow, sale, and use of small arms and light weapons in Sudan, Uganda, and Kenya presented their results. Chief among them was the finding that governments are involved directly, indirectly, or turn a blind eye to what is going on. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Guns flow freely and easily across the borders of Sudan, Uganda, and Kenya. Originating from such countries as China, North Korea, United Kingdom, Israel, the former Soviet bloc, and the U.S., they are transported, purchased, and sold by traders, often with the active or passive support of government security officers. The presence of guns fuels cattle raiding activities and other instabilities within the region. These are some of the conclusions of three separate reports investigating the flow, sale, and use of small arms and light weapons in Sudan, Uganda, and Kenya. The authors, who carried out their research earlier this year, presented their findings at the International Conference on Small Arms Trafficking in the Border Regions of Sudan, Uganda, and Kenya, held in Jinja, Uganda, from November 9 to 13 and funded by Cordaid, the Catholic Organisation for Relief and Development based in The Netherlands. In the case of Sudan, the Khartoum government supplies arms and training to members of ethnic groups such as the Murle, Mundari, Toposa, and Didinga, and the Lord’s Resistance Army (a rebel group operating in Uganda), to wage war against the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army (SPLA), which the government has been at war with since 1983. The Toposa alone received about 50,000 AKM rifles over the past decade, according to Illicit Firearms Proliferation and the Implications for Security and Peace in the Sudan, Kenya, and Uganda Border Region: Report of the Research Carried on the Sudan Side of the Common Borders. "The GoS political objective is to defeat the SPLM/A and to return to its sovereignty the areas on the international borders with neighbouring countries now under the control of the SPLA," says the report, produced by Larjour Consultancy, a Nairobi-based research organization. Besides re-gaining political control, the Sudan government wants to spread Islam and Arab culture to south Sudan and beyond its borders. Says the report: "the main objective of the northern political elite is the defeat of the African people in south Sudan as a springboard on the journey of arabisation and islamisation of Black Africa south of the Sahara." But the report does not let the SPLA off the hook, either; it points a finger at senior SPLA officials and deserters involved in the illicit trafficking of small arms. For instance, in east bank Equatoria, "soldiers desert at will, sometimes stealing weapons from their stores or from their colleagues," says the report. Because of this, and the injection of arms by the Sudan government, the area contains an estimated 250,000 small arms and light weapons excluding UXO and antipersonnel landmines. Illicit arms flow mainly from towns in Magwe, Torit, Budi (Chukudum), and Kapoeta counties. Arms are eventually trafficked to Karamoja and other destinations in Uganda, Naita in Ethiopia, and Lokichoggio in Kenya. The fighting has changed the way communities used to resolve conflicts over scarcity of water, food, land, and other matters, Peter Adwok Nyaba, director of Larjour Consultancy and the report’s author, said in an interview. "In the past, there used to be these kind of conflicts, but they would deal with these conflicts with traditional arms: sticks, spears, and so on. "Now the small arms have high destructive power," he says. "There’s many more casualties, and no discrimination between women, children, and so on, when the culture of these people really is that you don’t kill a woman, you don’t kill a child." In Uganda, Karamojong businesspeople, "rogue elements" of the government army Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF), local defence units (LDUs), "vigilantes," and the SPLA are major dealers in that country’s small arms and ammunition trade, according to Arms Trafficking in the Border Regions of Sudan, Uganda, and Kenya: A Case Study of Uganda: North, Northeastern, and Eastern. Dealers use local "collaborators" to determine who will purchase these arms. Most of the guns and ammunition that end up in the Karamoja region, markets in Kitgum district, and in other areas inside Uganda come from Gulu, says the report, produced by the Kampala-based Action for Development of the Local Communities (ADOL). "The arms and the ammunitions come from the UPDF armoury in Gulu Town with the connivance of well-placed security officers who provide protection for the racketeers," says the report. Karamojong warriors are the main purchasers of small arms and ammunition, says the report, with cattle raids and the cattle trade "intimately linked to gun trafficking." Guns and ammunition are filtered to the Karamoja region through markets in the counties of Dodoth, Matheniko, Katikekile, and Pokot. The report says that a new AK47 costs from US$70 to $100 (Ush100,000 to 150,000) at entry points and from US$270 to $340 (Ush400,000 to 500,000) in the interior. Bullets range from US$0.10 to $0.70 (Ush100 to 1,000) each. Prices fluctuate according to when cattle raids and other internal conflicts within Karamoja take place. Meanwhile, the Kenya government has also implemented many strategies - such as setting up police checkpoints staffed by armed police, hosting gun amnesty programmes in Trans-Nzoia district, deploying anti-stock theft units, establishing a government military camp in Lokichoggio, and recruiting local Kenya Police Reservists (KPRs) - to control arms trafficking and cattle rustling in trouble spots. Yet these and other government control measures "have been largely cosmetic and little has been achieved," says Determining the Issues and Setting the Standards: Report of Research on Proliferation of Small Arms in the North Rift Region of Kenya, produced by the Security Research and Information Centre (SRIC). The report says that police patrols fail to target real arms traffickers, police seldom thoroughly search vehicles at checkpoints or not at all if they receive bribes, and borders are poorly policed. "It was established that one can easily transport a huge arms cache through any of the official border points in either Uganda, Sudan, or Ethiopia past more than six police check points, and into Kitale town from Lokichoggio," it says. Small arms in Kenya come mostly from sources in Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia, and are purchased primarily by the Turkana and Pokot and, lately, the Marakwet, to defend themselves from attacks and to raid each other’s cattle. Politicians - particularly in West Pokot - "have played a leading role in inciting communities to violence," giving the clear message that arms trafficking and cattle raiding are acceptable practices, says the report. The Kerio Valley is an especially insecure area, along with others in West Pokot, Turkana, Trans-Nzoia, Marakwet, and East Baringo. People in West Pokot purchase their guns mostly from the Karamojong across the border, with key entry points being Suam, Konyalus, Amudat, and Kiwawa. In Trans-Nzoia district, the main entry points for guns are Endebess and the lower parts of Mt. Elgon, while arms come to Marakwet from East Baringo and Somali cattle dealers, who come from Isiolo. People in East Baringo get their guns from West Pokot, Turkana victims during raids, and Somali cattle dealers, says the report. The AK47 - which costs an average of US$389 (around Ksh30,000) with a bullet priced at US$0.65 (around Ksh50) - is the most popular model. Also readily available are Mk-4s and G3s stern, gun, pistols, and revolvers, says the report. "Guns are transported inside lorry tires, charcoal bags, wrapped with lorry tarpaulins and inside fuel tankers." "People don’t feel secure," says report author Mwachofi Singo, a consultant and lecturer in the Department of Government and Public Administration at Moi University. "People feel that the government has abdicated its responsibility to provide security to them. Based on that, people feel that they need arms to protect themselves." All three reports note that arms trafficking and the resultant cattle rustling and other criminal activities are caused by poverty, produce poverty, breed insecurity and misery, distort traditional conflict resolution mechanisms, and must be stopped. The way to do that, they say, is for governments to educate communities, provide alternative economic activities and development in troubled areas, and increase security measures within their own countries. However, local disarmament measures are useless unless communities in neighbouring countries are also disarmed, which means that there needs to be a regional approach and multi-government cooperation in curbing the small arms trade, they conclude. Government officials attending the conference were critical of the reports. "The Sudan government does not rely on tribes or militia to destabilize the SPLA-controlled area because already they are living in misery and continuing disturbance - they don’t need more," Osman Ahmed Hassan, First Secretary of the Embassy of the Republic of Sudan based in Kampala, said in an interview. "We have very strict laws, very strict practices against using firearms," he said. Likewise, with the exception of a few deserters, the SPLA is also not responsible for arms trafficking, said Dr. Samson Kwaje, Secretary for Information and Culture for the SPLM/SPLA. "We have had a system of registration of our guns since 1983," he said. "We roughly know the amount of guns that we have." And, the SPLA’s civic institutions such as regional governors, county commissioners, and village chiefs are strong enough to monitor arms trafficking, he said. Arms trafficking is not within the UPDF’s policy and is prohibited, the Hon. Sarah Kiyingi, Uganda’s Minister of State for Internal Affairs, said in an interview. "There will always be people who will want to take advantage of the situation and deal with something which they know is illegal, which they know is an act of indiscipline," she said. "But, certainly, where those people have been caught, leaders have taken action." "What we, in Uganda are doing, is that we liaise with the local councils," Captain Kapel of the UPDF told a session. "We have already put in place security forces at the borders to check the inflow of guns. We already arrest all those who are dealing with arms and take them to court for prosecution. What is remaining is the sharing of intelligence among the three countries." Brigadier E.K. Tonui, a representative of Defence Headquarters of the Kenya government, said that the government is doing all it can to control the situation with limited resources and personnel. "We’re talking of a very large area with very little infrastructure, poor roads, that kind of thing," he said. "It would be very impracticable for troops to be able to effectively man those areas, even the police themselves. Trying to achieve as much as we could means getting a bigger force, which of course, economically, is not an easy thing." He said he was unable to comment on specific police behaviours described in the report, but that generally "our military and police forces are really disciplined forces. We have a code of conduct for each," enforced by commanders "who are answerable for their men." "I believe the people have sufficient confidence in the [Kenya] government to provide security, partially because the government is also appreciating the concerns and some innovative approaches in which we think they can be assisted," said Turkana Member of Parliament Hon. David Ekwee Ethuro, who is also Assistant Minister of Labour and Human Resource Development. He said that government representatives have persuaded communities not to actively raid or attack other communities. "To some extent, we’ve been able to succeed. If you take the incidence of fighting involving Turkana raiders, they are fewer than in the past. That was because we were able to reach out to our people." And, a new protocol prohibits politicians from making inflammatory statements, he said. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- USAGE/ACKNOWLEDGE Contents can be freely reproduced with acknowledgements. The by-line should read: author/AFRICANEWS. Send a copy of the reproduced article to AFRICANEWS. AFRICANEWS - Koinonia Media Centre, P.O. Box 21255, Nairobi, Kenya tel: +254.2.576175 (voice) Fax:- +254.2.577892 (fax-modem) AFRICANEWS on line is by Koinonia Media Centre --------------------------------------------------------------------------------