Monograph 25: Connecting Weapons With Violence: The South American Experience, By Khatchik Der Ghoughassian snd Leandro Piquet Carneir

Conventional weapons systems, so decisive in conflicts where military is pitched against military, have little real effect in maintaining the security of civilian populations during and after wars. The majority of casualties, of abuses of authority and of indiscriminate killings are caused by the availability and use of small arms.

Since small arms and light weapons, which include landmines, machine guns, grenades, pistols and rocket launchers, are standard issue during violent conflict and are not normally controlled during post-conflict processes, the potential of these weapons for illegal use – and abuse – is substantial. Because conflict resolution processes depend on socio-economic development, effective democracy and security (as seen in a credible law and order structure), these remedies require time and stability for their successful implementation. If there is indiscriminate access to the tools of violence (i.e., weapons), stability will be harder to maintain and development in time of peace will not take place.

Seldom, if ever, have all weapons been collected at the end of an armed struggle. Physical security, primacy and economic necessity generate the force that propels the trade in small arms a trade that no longer requires a new influx of weapons to be destabilising. It depends instead on the constant, ever-widening circles of distribution of the massive stocks already in existence.

THE TOWARDS COLLABORATIVE PEACE PROJECT AT THE INSTITUTE FOR SECURITY STUDIES

One of the legacies of conflict in Southern Africa is the glut of light weapons and small arms. These weapons are being transported illegally across borders, where they are used to generate political instability and to carry out crimes in many rural and urban areas in the region. Under these circumstances, democratisation programmes (which include demobilisation, disarmament and policing) are being jeopardised to the point that most people feel the need to acquire weapons for self-defence. In consequence, communities have abandoned their traditional, negotiated mechanisms of conflict-resolution and conflict-management, seeking instead to resolve violent situations with solutions equally violent. Although in its infancy, a culture of violence has begun to emerge in the region, threatening democracy and development as a result.

With this context in mind, the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in South Africa has developed its Towards Collaborative Peace (TCP) project which aims to study the dynamics of the illegal trade in small arms in Southern Africa. In the course of this study, the TCP project will demonstrate the linkages between an increased availability of small arms and the emergence of a culture of violence in transit and end-user societies. The countries in the geographic region chosen manifest a number of similarities which permit their linkage for the purpose of this study. Thus, all are either victims of the violence accompanying small arms proliferation or act as transit points from where weapons are distributed further afield. Likewise, all have been affected, to a greater or lesser extent, by the existence of porous borders which connect them to nation-states that have accumulated a massive surplus of light weapons as a result of decades of internal strife and ill-managed disarmament operations during multinational peace processes (i.e., Angola, Mozambique). A final point of connection is that all countries in the study are members of the same regional and sub-regional organisations, namely the Organisation for African Unity (OAU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

The project, therefore, seeks to discover what is the nature of the small arms proliferation problem in all of these countries; how increased availability of weapons is affecting the societies; and what structures within existing regional groupings could be utilised to diminish the flow and effects of light weapons proliferation in Southern Africa. Furthermore, the project seeks to implement a south-south approach in dealing with this issue by contrasting the existing trends in Southern Africa with the southern part of South America.

The TCP project has several components of which the most important are field research, and the publication of a series of books and monographs, the end result of which will be to propose viable mechanisms for both the regional control of weapons flows and the reversal of a culture of violence at local level.

The main purpose of the field research is to establish what the impact of ineffectual demobilisation and disarmament is in countries such as Mozambique and Angola; and what the effects are of the resulting excess of weapons on the surrounding countries. Particular attention is being focused on the way the light weapons, available in such massive amounts, pervert the societies through which the weapons transit in order to determine if a culture of violence follows in the wake of such indiscriminate proliferation of light weapons. The examples uncovered in the field research so far touch upon such diverse societal elements as demobilised soldiers, refugees and other migrant communities, rural communities and urban populations of Southern Africa.

If the TCP project`s field research is beginning to show why light weapons should be more effectively controlled in Southern Africa, its publications highlight the underlying reasons for the occurrence of the proliferation of light weapons, the present dynamics of light weapons proliferation and the way in which existing regional structures could be used to stem the flows. There are four books in the TCP project series, and a number of monographs. The books looks at the global environment in which the proliferation of weapons occurs and the causes for such a proliferation in Southern Africa, the existing regional mechanisms that might be utilised as control vehicles for stemming the proliferation of light weapons in Southern Africa, and the culture of violence which has emerged as a result of ineffectual controls and easy availability of light weapons in the region. The final volume will produce a series of recommendations for improvement of control mechanisms at regional level and for reversal of the culture of violence locally.

To accompany the set of books, the project is publishing a series of monographs, of which this is the second. These are designed to produce a comprehensive view of the actual status of small arms proliferation nationally and to cover general issues which are relevant to the ultimate recommendations of the entire project. Thus the monograph series includes research on the status of weapons flows in Namibia, Angola, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique and Swaziland. Other issues which will be covered in the monograph series include a study of comparative legislation for firearm ownership and use a discussion of voluntary weapons collection programmes, often known as gun buy-backs. This monograph, Connecting Weapons with Violence: The South Ameican Experience focuses in its first part on the availability and patterns of distribution of firearms in South America, specifically those countries which belong to the Southern Common Market (Mercosur), Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. The second and third parts discuss emerging cultures of violence in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Rio de Janiero, Brazil, respectively. The role of weapons in this increasing violence is explored as are attitudes towards firearms ownership and use.

Since the project brings applied research to the field of light weapons control, it does not stop at field research and writing. Two further components of the project deal with proposing specific recommendations for application at the levels of regional organisation and local community. The channel for implementing the first type of recommendation is a set of workshops and conferences designed as inter-agency discussions between point persons dealing with weapons control at national and regional levels. The second type of recommendation focuses on the creation of an educational package to be applied by local communities for the reversal of a culture of violence that has been radically influenced by the use of firearms. This package will be implemented via a pilot project set up near Johannesburg. This model for the control of weapons and the reversal of the culture of violence will be observed and documented and the results will be included in the last volume in the Towards Collaborative Peace book series.

This project, therefore, is a first look at a complex problem, one that is so multi-layered that decision makers often are deterred from taking effective action. In gaining some understanding of certain aspects of the problem of the proliferation of small arms, the ISS, through its TCP project, hopes to highlight the nature of the problem and to offer insights for its resolution.

Virginia Gamba
Halfway House, March 1998

ENDNOTES