19 July 2001

U.S. Hopeful Small Arms Accord Can Be Reached at UN Conference

United Nations -- Although time is running out on diplomats trying to negotiate an action plan to stem the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons, the United States remains hopeful conferees can agree on a program to address the problem before adjourning July 20.

Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs Lincoln Bloomfield said July 19 that the horrendous consequences resulting from the illicit flows of small arms and light weapons is a problem the U.S. "cares a lot about."

While the United States has come under intense criticism from other delegations for its unwavering opposition to some portions of the draft Program of Action, Bloomfield stressed throughout a half-hour press conference that the United States is eager to see the conference come up with a document that can be accepted by consensus.

The United States objects to paragraphs in the document relating to setting specific controls on record keeping, discouraging the right of individual citizens to own weapons, prohibiting the sale of weapons to all insurgent groups, and a mandatory review conference.

"The U.S.," he said, "has a well-established set of laws, regulations and procedures and institutions" for dealing with such issues. "There is a lot of debate in Washington and around the country about this or that aspect of our laws and procedures, and the venue for considering any changes to those is Washington."

The United States wants the final Program of Action to "set the basis for cooperation and give some other governments essentially the encouragement to go back home and to say they have the encouragement of the international community to start putting in place their own laws and procedures where they feel these are needed but lacking," he said.

"On that basis they would find the United States quite eager to engage, share our experiences and to see if we can be of assistance," the assistant secretary said.

"We can see here in both the official and non-official representation, both inside the hall and outside, a great deal of passion on this issue -- a passion which the United States shares," he said. "So we come here ... hopeful that we can work together, that we can come away from New York with an agreed political Program of Action amongst the fellow states."

"We care about this as do many other countries," he said. "That is where the common passion lies. If we could eliminate the unfortunate ambiguities that may be resonant in the process right now, we can come to something all of us can support. And some good can come out of it."

U.S. delegates "have been working very hard" toward that end, the assistant secretary said. "There are many elements of cooperation that could flow from such a Program of Action were it to be successfully concluded."

"What we are about here is those sovereign states coming together with a common will to try to advance a political set of agreed goals and then to follow up with concrete steps aimed at doing some real good in places where some real good needs to be done," Bloomfield said.

"It is appropriate that we should come together and see if we can point our compass toward more effective coordination so that our endeavors will be more successful in trying to stop areas of instability from deteriorating to the point where many civil society political processes break down, where peacekeeping cannot be safely conducted, and even where forceful intervention is taken only at very high risk," he said.

Nevertheless, the assistant secretary said even if the United States cannot sign on to the final conference document, it will still remain engaged and active in helping to stem the illicit flow of weapons, especially sharing the U.S. experience in establishing effective export controls and regulations.

"The United States will continue to work with other governments on a bilateral basis to provide assistance, technical assistance, training to try to show how our system works," Bloomfield said.

"One size does not fit all. But we will try to share our experience with other governments, as we can hear in the main hall, who are looking for both a mandate and specific advise on how to create their own controls and regulations and ways of curbing the flow of illicit small arms and light weapons," he said.

"There are many aspects to addressing this problem and the United States is already engaged in many of them," he said.

Bloomfield, who pointed out that he is the person who has the final say on the U.S. exports of military goods and services, explained that "if there is a question about a weapon falling into the wrong hands, (that) causes some harm, I'm the person they should call because on my staff are compliance officers, enforcement officers."

"If we have the data, we will go back and check the export and we will, if we can, find a party who has transgressed the law, go after them," he said. "If we find that an end user has passed it into the wrong hands, they will be no longer eligible to receive U.S. exports."

"We have a system and we want to commend it to countries here in New York," Bloomfield said.