10 July 2001

U.S. Supports Regional Efforts to Control Illicit Arms Trade

Washington - State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher said July 10 that the United States has worked around the world in supporting regional efforts to control the illicit trade in arms.

He pointed specifically to U.S. work on an Organization of American States Convention on Small Arms, and, internationally, on the Vienna Firearms Protocol, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Framework Document on Small Arms, and "a number of other international efforts to curb the illicit trade in these weapons." One U.S. goal at the United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons, being held July 9-20 in New York, "is to make this kind of regulation of the illicit trade an international effort," he told reporters at the July 10 State Department briefing.

Following is the excerpt dealing with small arms from the transcript of the briefing:

(begin excerpt)

Question: Do you have any comments on the ongoing convention or conference at the UN against the illegal arms? Now again, the question goes -- who are those countries, can you name, that are doing multi-billion dollar business which is really -- against the United States, eventually through terrorists, those arms that lands in the hands of terrorists?

Mr. Boucher: I don't think I have a list of countries who are supplying arms to terrorists for you right now. We all know the countries that have been cooperating with terrorists in the past.

I want to say a couple things about this conference, since you give me the opportunity, and the first is that you stated it right in your question. It's a UN conference, with a mandate from the General Assembly to discuss trade in illicit arms, to discuss the illegal or black market trade in weapons around the world. That is what we are going to the conference to do and we want the conference to do that effectively.

I think the most effective way of doing that is going to be to concentrate on the kinds of steps that governments can take to have properly licensed trade, to track things, to do things such as the United States does, in terms of being one of the 12 countries that outlaws the, or that regulates, the brokering of arms trade. The kinds of things the United States does in terms of licensing all trade in weapons like this, the kinds of things the United States does in terms of following up, doing end-use checks, doing checks on where these arms go. So that is the kind of -- those are the kind of steps that we would like to see in the program of action that comes out of this conference, so that the conference can effectively address the illicit international trade in weapons.

As far as the kind of problems that have been created by these weapons, I think we have seen illegal weapons or illicit weapons show up in zones of conflict throughout the world. We are familiar, I think, with the situation in a number of West African countries and other parts of Africa, where diamonds were being traded for the -- and weapons were being bought on the open market, illegal weapons.

So we have been dealing with both parts of that problem, both the diamond problem, in terms of getting a system with the diamond merchants together, and there was just a meeting in Moscow not long ago to regularize the trade in diamonds, but also the other side of it, to deal with the weapons problems.

And the last thing I want to say about this -- the United States has worked around the world in supporting regional efforts to control the illicit trade in arms. We have worked in the Americas on an Organization for American States Convention on Small Arms. We have worked internationally on the Vienna Firearms Protocol, the OSCE in Europe, Framework Document on Small Arms, a number of other international efforts to curb the illicit trade in these weapons. And one goal that we have at this conference is to make this kind of structure and this kind of regulation of the illicit trade an international effort.

Question: Just to follow up, (inaudible) reference according to the reports are from China and Pakistan. So since the Secretary is also visiting China and also -- how the US will enforce their opposition from these countries, or how the US is working with these countries?

Mr. Boucher: Well, I think the first task right now is to go to this conference, try to get agreement at this conference on actions that governments can take, that the international community can take to curb the illicit trade in small arms and weapons. This subject of small arms trade has been a feature of his discussions in many places. The Secretary discussed the small arms trade when he was in Africa, for example, because we have supported out there the Southern African work on this problem. And I am sure it will be a feature of his discussions in other places as we go forward. But the most immediate effort is being made up in New York to get a program of action that can do something effective about the problem.

Question: And you agree that the problem is serious?

Mr. Boucher: Absolutely. I think that is clear from the statements we have made.

Question: Can you talk about a reported split with some of the member states on a ban on military assault weapons? There seems to be some difference between the United States and some other states on what should actually go into the consensus document.

Mr. Boucher: The issue to us is not a question of domestic law. I think many countries have many different internal regulations about weapons, about who should own them, about what kinds of weapons are available, things like that. The issue to us is a question of the trade and how it is regulated and how it is handled, how it is measured, how it is tracked, where weapons go. Different countries are going to have different laws about what people can have, what can be traded, what can be sold to different groups, what can be sold to governments and non-governmental groups.

But the important thing is this be properly handled, that it be carefully managed. We think along the lines of the kind of licensing practices that we have. So, I guess I would say in the end the issue of "this gun is good, that gun is bad," is not the issue for the conference. The conference's issue is how do you regulate the illicit trade in guns.

(end excerpt)