Under the agreement, their governments will be obliged to address the problem of internal conflict, which has served as a magnet for light weapons flowing into central and East Africa.

"The defining characteristic of such conflict is the widespread death and suffering resulting from small arms and light weapons, which are readily obtainable, both legally and illicitly," said Kenya's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Kalonzo Musyoka, during a press conference at the meeting.

The protocol requires states to pass laws outlawing the illicit manufacture, trafficking, possession and misuse of small arms and light weapons. But non-governmental organizations have warned that the penalties imposed by these laws need to be equally severe in all countries if the agreement is to have any effect.

"While legislation needs to be country-specific, the trans-national nature of the small arms problem requires that countries work together and that they seek to ensure consistency in particular areas of legal controls on small arms," says a report issued this year by SaferAfrica and Saferworld, civil society groups.

The organizations say that a disparity in laws will simply prompt arms dealers to move their activities to states where weapons trafficking is less frowned upon.

"The implication of having weaker controls in some countries than in others is that the trafficking of arms and other destabilizing activities with which it is frequently closely associated, can continue with a high risk of such activities spilling across the national borders within the sub-region," adds the report by SaferAfrica and Saferworld.

Somalia, which was not represented at the meeting, was cited as a case in point. The country has been gripped by civil strife since the fall of President Siad Barre 14 years ago - and it has yet to re- establish a central government.

Many of the weapons that fuel faction fighting in Somalia have found their way into Kenya, according to Musyoka. He believes that some 60,000 illicit arms have been smuggled into Kenya - an estimate endorsed by the Africa Peace Forum and the Security Research Information Centre, both based in Nairobi.

"Somalia needs total disarmament. There are so many guns being sold in the open, and most buyers are warlords who openly commit crimes using them. Many women and children have been killed by these guns," Asha Abdi, a politician from the country told IPS in a telephone interview in Nairobi.

"The international community as well as neighboring countries should worry about what is happening in Somalia. They should come to our rescue by telling warring parties attending peace talks to disown selfish interests and put unity of their people first in order to bring peace in the horn of African nation," she added.

Peace talks aimed at restoring order in Somalia opened in Kenya in 2002. Despite being marred by numerous disagreements between faction leaders, the discussions have yielded results. Delegates, who represent a wide social spectrum, are expected to elect members of parliament by June 5 2004. These legislators will then elect a president.
Sudan, which has been embroiled in a 20-year civil war between the Muslim government in Khartoum and Christian and animist rebels in the south, is also said to be in possession of thousands of illicit arms.

"This problem is in Sudan just like it is in other countries in the region. And we are here (in Nairobi) to collectively to find an end to the problem," Ali Abdalrahaman Numeri, the country's ambassador to Kenya, told IPS at last week's meeting.

A 2003 report from the Small Arms Survey, a Geneva-based arms research project, says there are about 30 million small arms in sub- Saharan Africa.

In 2001, the United Nations adopted a ‘Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons', in an effort to help UN member states address the problem. All the countries represented at the Nairobi meeting were signatories to this programme, according to Oyugi Onono, planning and coordination officer at the Secretariat on Small Arms for the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa. (The secretariat is based in Nairobi.)

"If nations, and especially those from (the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa) adhere to this programme and implement the Nairobi protocol, proliferation of arms will with no doubt be brought under control in the region," Koffi Koffison, Programme Coordinator of the UN Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Africa told IPS.
 

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