29 February 2000

Statement by Lee A. Feinstein
Deputy Director of the Policy and Planning Staff
To the First Preparatory Committee
For the United Nations 2001 Conference
On the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons
February 29, 2000

As Prepared for Delivery

Mr. Chairman, let me congratulate you, as others have, on assuming the chair of this important preparatory process on the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in all its aspects. We look forward to working closely with you, and you can count on the full backing of the United States in supporting this very important endeavor.

Although prices are low, the social cost of sales in small arms and light weapons is high. No region of the world is exempt from this problem. But in each case, it is the people who are the losers. Because what is at stake, is not only regional stability, or peace and reconciliation in regions of conflict, or the fight against terrorism and international criminality, but for many countries in transition, the threat is to democracy itself.

We are grateful to the United Nations, which has put this issue on the international agenda, beginning with the first report of the Government Panel of Experts in 1997, leading within the space of just two years to a strong presidential statement in the UNSC last September, and to the General Assembly decision in November to launch the process that brings us here this week.

The United States attaches great importance to this issue. Over the past five years, my government has raised this issue in meetings and speeches with increasing regularity and urgency. Our Secretary of State, who spoke on this issue at the UN last September, made it a priority of her recent trip to Africa.

The United States applauds the growing international interest in this issue and is building partnerships with other nations and regional organizations. We have established a partnership with our friends in Norway to focus on the destruction of excess weapons. In December, we adopted a 10-point EU-US plan of Action. We have provided technical assistance in border control and law enforcement to our neighbors in Latin America. Earlier this year, we began work with the UN’s African Institute for the Prevention of Crime and Treatment of Offenders -- UNAFRI-- to survey the regulations, laws and capacities of African nations and to set an agenda for future work to prevent illicit trafficking in small arms and light weapons.

As a supplier nation, we recognize our special responsibility to maintain the highest standards of restraint and to keep our own house in order. To that end, we have implemented national legislation to better monitor the activities of arms brokers, without impeding their legitimate activities. We have adopted legislation to make our small arms exports more transparent and have shared our experiences with the Wassenaar Arrangement, the EU and the UN. The United States has enhanced scrutiny of arms exports, paying special attention to cases where the type or number of requests for weapons indicates that they may be funneled to third countries, or siphoned into the black market.

We signed the OAS Convention Against Illicit Firearms Trafficking in 1997 and are working hard to conclude the United Nations Protocol to Combat the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms by the end of this year. These are essential efforts to eradicate illicit arms trafficking while protecting the legal trade in firearms. We see the 2001 Conference as complementing not duplicating the UN’s effort in Vienna.

Weapons collection and destruction is another priority. The United States welcomes the important precedent the UN has set by undertaking the destruction of more than 18,000 weapons, including assault rifles, heavy machine guns, rocket propelled grenades, and mortars as well as three million rounds of ammunition left over the Liberian civil war. The United States has participated in and contributed to this effort.

We are committed to working toward destroying such stocks of weapons worldwide. Last month at the OSCE meeting of Stability Pact nations in Sarajevo, the United States and Norway, as a part of our joint action on small arms and light weapons, offered to dispatch assessment teams to evaluate stockpile security and to identify inexpensive means of destroying excess weapons. The United States is expecting to send teams to three countries in the region on the basis of that offer. Last week, we provided funds to Albania in conjunction with Britain to destroy 5,000 seized rocket propelled grenades before they can fall into the wrong hands. We also committed funding to destroy 10,000 collected weapons in Mali. We are seeking to build public-private partnership so that the private sector can support government and vice versa in the effort to secure and eliminate seized and collected weapons.

Turning to the 2001 Conference, our focus should be on the kind of concrete and pragmatic measures contained in the two reports produced by the Government Panel of Experts. We believe that the international community should pursue an integrated, comprehensive approach -- in countries of origin and countries of conflict, among buyers, sellers and brokers, and with governments as well as international and non-governmental organizations.

To that end, the Program of Action authorized by UNG resolution 54/54V should achieve concrete steps that will make a genuine difference in combating the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in all its aspects, while spotlighting the special concerns and responsibilities of the international community in this area. An illustrative list of the types of measures to consider at the 2001 conference include:

• further coordination and promotion of efforts to support the destruction of excess weapons and adequate stockpile security;
• greater transparency;
• strengthening observance of embargoes established by the United Nations including through the adoption of appropriate national legislation.
• enhanced retransfer controls and end-user verification;
• adequate monitoring and regulation of arms brokering activities;
• development of model regulations, or standards, on the adequacy of firearms marking techniques and procedures working in partnership with the firearms manufacturing community;
• strengthening international cooperation in law-enforcement, customs and border control, including measures to make assistance available to prevent illicit trafficking when and where it is most needed;
• attacking the economy of war that supports arms trafficking, including by identifying ways to track and intercept trafficking in precious gemstones used in financing conflict.

Civil society has made an exceptional contribution to this process. NGO reports on arms flows are frequently the best -- and sometimes the only -- source of information available. Industry has provided detailed expert analysis and technical support for the UN process in Vienna. We will continue to turn to civil society for its expertise and perspectives as we go forward.

What we seek for the 2001 Conference on the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in all its aspects is a widely supported outcome that will produce concrete and pragmatic results. We need to press ahead with innovative, concrete and workable measures for, as Secretary General Kofi Annan reminded us when he addressed African Ministers, every day that we fail to resolve our problems through political, not military means, innocent people around the world pay a terrible price. We owe them our very best efforts.