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Monday June 26, 10:50 PMLEAD: U.N. confab on small arms opens in New York(Kyodo) _ (EDS: UPDATING WITH OPENING OF CONFAB)A U.N. conference to review progress in global curbs on the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons opened Monday at U.N. headquarters in New York. Designed to review progress in implementing the 2001 Program of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons, the meeting is expected to produce a political document setting new goals at its close on July 7. The nonbinding program, adopted unanimously five years ago, commits countries to a variety of measures to cut back on the proliferation of such weapons. Critics want members to broaden the scope of the scheme and deploy additional resources. Having established rules on identifying and tracking illicit manufacturing of the weapons, attention has shifted to controlling arms traders and brokers who act unregistered with governments or industry groups, conference sources said. At the just-started meeting, member states will welcome that the first meeting is scheduled for November for government experts to study and make recommendations on regulating illicit brokering, the sources said. About 2,000 representatives from governments, international and regional organizations and civil society will review the efforts and progress made at all levels and address future issues, they said. From Japan, Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Shintaro Ito will attend and call in his address Monday for establishing international standards for controlling transfers of those weapons, particularly their exports, they said. Small arms, including guns and rifles, and light weapons, such as heavy machine guns and portable missile launchers, are said to be responsible for 60-90 percent of direct conflict deaths, which were between 80,000 and 108,000 worldwide in 2003, according to conference fact sheets. The fact sheets cite a Small Arms Survey by the Geneva-based Graduate institute of International Studies. U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan is quoted as saying such arms could well be described as "weapons of mass destruction," as they cause far more deaths than the toll of the atomic bombings on Hiroshima and Nagasaki most years. While an estimated 600 million small arms and light weapons are in circulation worldwide, about 25 percent of the $4 billion annual global trade in small arms is illicit or not recorded as required by law, with their sources varying from illicit brokering and manufacturing to weapons left over from conflicts and theft, according to the documents. |
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