Small arms foster social turmoil

Illegal trafficking disrupts African communities, spreads crime

By Virginia Gamba*

A massive quantity of small arms is now circulating throughout Africa, moving unchecked across porous borders. This is one of the legacies of the continent's many conflicts. The origins of the small arms build-up lie in the Cold War competition and the struggles against colonialism and apartheid. More recently, as internal wars predominate, the influx of new weapons remains a preoccupation. But it is the illicit redistribution and flows of existing stocks from older conflicts which currently raise the greatest concern.

Photo: UN Institute for Disarmament Research

In some countries, increases in crime and local instability jeopardize post-conflict democratization programmes, with many people -- especially among demobilized soldiers, refugees and other migrant and displaced communities -- feeling so insecure that they acquire weapons for self-defence, thus further encouraging the illegal arms markets. Over time, the increased availability of unregulated and uncontrolled light weapons changes social values, making societies and individuals more, not less, insecure and violent.

Inadequate disarmament

In many countries, such uncontrollable movements of small arms have occurred because peace settlements did not provide for the collection and destruction of surplus weapons. Accumulated weapons stocks became tradable commodities and circulated freely, contributing to continuing violence after the end of war.

Without adequate disarmament, peace in Mozambique brought a massive movement of guns across borders, flowing northward to feed the conflicts in the Great Lakes region and the Horn of Africa, and southward to supply Southern Africa's growing black markets in arms. If at first the trade in weapons involved individuals selling one weapon for food or commodities, soon weapons smuggling became an organized business. According to an October 1997 report on weapons proliferation in South Africa, single smugglers could bring in about 30 weapons from across the Mozambican border at one time and usually undertook two trips per month.

The resulting weapons proliferation has exacerbated social conflicts in South Africa, bringing an increase in cattle rustling and the bartering of guns for cattle. The South African Police Service reported that 15,923 head of stock were stolen from rural communities between July and November 1997 alone.

South Africa is not alone. Some of the most dramatic changes are occurring in traditional pastoral communities in other countries as well. Two examples demonstrate the links between small arms and cattle rustling: in the rural areas of Swaziland along its border with Mozambique, and in pastoral communities straddling Kenya, Ethiopia and Sudan.

Fear among Swazi villagers

Since Mozambique's border with South Africa is more heavily monitored than that with other countries, gun trading into Swaziland has been a more serious problem. The road between Boane and Siteki, bordering Mozambique, is in an area of traditionally peaceful communities which live off their livestock. The small villages along the border customarily protected their livestock with communal support groups. Young men patrolled the cattle enclosures at night and, if a thief was found, he was beaten up or threatened with traditional weapons, as a means of deterring theft.

However, with the rise in gun smuggling across the border (in exchange for money, cattle or other goods), the communities directly in the path of the weapons smugglers have been profoundly changed. The "neighbourhood watches" ended when the thieves began to come with AK-47s. Villagers stay home at night, afraid to cross paths known to be used by arms smugglers or by armed cattle-rustlers (sometimes the same individuals), who sell stolen cattle in the meat-deprived markets of Maputo, Mozambique's capital. Women are reluctant to collect water and firewood, for fear of death, rape or kidnapping.

In reaction to the rise in violence and lawlessness, the villagers themselves are now saving money to buy guns (illegally) for self-defence, perceiving that the only protection against an assault rifle is another assault rifle. They have lost faith in the ability of their own traditional security arrangements to protect them. Lacking resources, fearing loss of life and limb, and corrupted by the impact of the cross-border smuggling networks, the local authorities are hampered from increasing protection along the border. Meanwhile, violence has fostered distrust among the peoples in the area, imperiling maintenance of traditional conflict-resolution customs in and around Boane. In many instances the notion of law -- either promoted by the authorities or channeled through traditional mechanisms -- has been reduced to its most basic and violent form: the possession of a gun.

Cattle rustling in the Horn

In long-standing conflict areas along the borders of Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya, guns also have been responsible for turning the traditional communal activities of pastoral societies into deadly confrontations. A recent study on small arms in the Horn of Africa by the International Resource Group (IRG), a non-governmental organization devoted to disarmament and security issues in the region, found that the introduction of modern arms has "turned normally benign inter-communal competitions over resources into utterly catastrophic experiences."

Rustlers among Kenya's Karamajong, now carrying modern arms instead of traditional weapons, have succeeded in amassing the cattle of their neighbours, the IRG noted, adding that cases of low-level disturbances among the West Pokots of Kenya are often reported and "may be an indication of trickles of arms from South Sudan/Ethiopia seeping into this area." Forays by armed Ethiopians into the adjacent districts of Kenya also have occurred. By all counts, reported the IRG, "this is the most neglected area of the entire Horn region. When this is further complicated by the introduction of modern arms, it is possible that the lives of numerous traditional peoples have been drastically affected."

In a context of both inter-ethnic conflict and violence within communities, "seeking arms for the protection of oneself and one's livestock figures very high in the dreams of every young and able male," says the report. As a result, herders "act not only as consumers of small arms but also as traffickers in arms."

Clearly, the increased availability of small arms in Africa has contributed to the emergence of a culture of violence. The examples above refer to the impact on pastoral societies, but similar effects can be found among other communities, as new trans-national criminal networks become more pervasive and deadly in Eastern and Southern Africa. As a result, progress toward good governance, stability and peace has been complicated. Small arms trafficking has become one of the biggest threats to national and regional security in Africa.

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