The country has been applauded for being among the first within the Great Lakes Region, the Horn of Africa and bordering states to control and prevent fire arms distribution

Following the Regional Center on Small Arms (RECSA)’ technical advisory committee meeting last Friday, the organization’s Council of Ministers is having a two-day meeting in Kigali to deliberate and make decisions on the policy direction to be taken in the fight against Smalls arms and illicit trafficking of light weapons.

The current chairman of the council of ministers, Internal Security Minister Sheikh Musa Fazil Harerimana, said that the meeting comes at a time when the organization is facing serious financial problems due to various RECS member countries failing to pay their contributions.

Harerimana told the delegates from the 12 out of 14 RECSA member states present that Rwanda is pleased to reiterate its continued support to the implementation of the Nairobi Protocol on Small Arms. “The national focal point oversees the implementation of activities in compliance with this protocol ranging from arms marking, electronic record keeping, public awareness, legal harmonization, arms destruction, etc.,” he said. “Through collaboration with RECSA and other parties, we are seeing positive results.”

From September 1994 to November 2011, Rwanda destroyed 53,357 tons of weapons and ammunition.

The meeting will include deliberations on policy and operational issues that will contribute to the smooth running and the future of the RECSA secretariat, and particularly in the implementation of the Nairobi Protocol on Small Arms in the region.

“The easy availability of illegal arms to non-state actors has both direct and indirect effects on citizens and countries as a whole,” stressed Francis K. Sang, RECSA’s executive secretary. “The RECSA region bears the brunt of uncontrolled proliferation of small arms to non-state weapons.”

Sang reiterated that the primary responsibility of addressing the problems posed by illegal weapons belongs to individual countries. “Our role is to provide support to RECSA member states to implement the Nairobi Protocol in the three key areas of stockpile management, generation and provision of information, and institutional development.”

Security Ministers gathered in Kigali vowed to coordinate through RECSA the action against proliferation of small arms and light weapons in the Great Lakes region and Horn of Africa, towards having a safe and secure sub-region in a peaceful continent free from arms proliferation.

Initially known as the Nairobi Secretariat, RECSA was set up to coordinate the implementation of the Nairobi Declaration on the problem of the proliferation illicit small arms and light weapons in the Great Lakes region and the Horn of Africa. The Nairobi Declaration was signed on March 15, 2000 by 10 countries: Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. The signatories were later joined by Somalia and Seychelles.

The Declaration mandated the Nairobi Secretariat to coordinate efforts by national focal points to prevent, combat and eradicate stockpiling and illicit trafficking.

Source: The Rwanda Focus