Discussion Groups: Country Reports

Transcription

1 Plenary Contribution to IPPNW Conference Aiming for Prevention: International Medical Conference on Small Arms, Gun Violence, and Injury. Helsinki, Finland, September 2001 Discussion Groups: Country Reports Introduction: Brian Rawson, Program Coordinator, IPPNW As you know yesterday was focused largely on research, on the existing knowledge that we have about small arms and gun violence in various parts of the world. And today we move from that topic into the question of the analysis of the risk factors that are associated with small arms and gun violence, and into questions of advocacy and ultimately action what can we do, what can health professionals do to address the problem, to reduce death, injury and suffering from small arms and gun violence? Yesterday s groups heard country reports. I understand that the task for each of those groups was much larger than the time allotted to actually come to conclusions in most of the subjects. So when we hear summaries from reporters today, keep in mind that this conference is a beginning. This is the first time that most of us are coming together in one place and meeting each other. We are trying to identify gaps in our knowledge, sources for data, share best practices in research and tips, and try to compare methodologies. These will be some of the themes that we hear starting now. The Americas discussion group Greg Puley, Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress, Costa Rica Good morning. I m not a data person. So this is a layman s perspective on some of the things that came out of the Americas discussion yesterday. I think that the most important thing is that the people from the Americas agreed that we needed to increase the depth and breadth of the information on this problem in the hemisphere, and that we need to find ways to try to harmonize the way the information is presented so that it can be of greater use. It was pointed out that there are problems associated with the different sources of information. From police, forensics, pathology, and very often these don t fit together very well. Or very often they have different methodologies and come up with different results. That was pointed out to be a problem and that the best thing to do is, when analyzing these data to analyze these data together. It was pointed out that some in the hemisphere are beginning to mount their own databases because of the lack of harmonized databases at the national level. The Guatemalan NGO community has undertaken an initiative to take the different sources of data and put them together into a

2 single database, and similar things are happening in Canada and elsewhere. It was pointed out that there are some significant problems with record keeping. One is the disparity between the quality and quantity of information between urban and rural areas. And between police departments. There are some significant translation problems, particularly the term homicide which in Spanish legal tradition different forms of that term homicide take in intentional and unintentional deaths, which creates a problem. Manslaughter is often referred to as a form of homicide. There tends to be an over-reporting of unintentional or accidental deaths and an underreporting of suicides in many countries to cultural factors. There is also trouble with the fidelity of information on exports, imports, and weapons sales in many countries particularly in Central America where they are controlled by military or by former military. I d say the biggest overriding problem with the data that was pointed out was that in the Latin American context, particularly in the post-war context, the difference between the reality on the ground and that which is reflected in many of the statistics, particularly on weapons possession, and the number of weapons in circulation where estimates vary radically we pointed out the case of El Salvador, where the difference between estimates can be 250,000. You can see a figure that 500,000 weapons are circulating in the country. You can see a figure that 250,000 weapons are circulating in the country. It s very difficult to know, because many of these weapons were transferred covertly some years ago, but we know because of the durability of these things that they don t go away. So when 10 or 15, or an undetermined but small percentage of these weapons are registered it s very very difficult to have reliable estimates of what the reality is. And I think that the final point that came up with is very important is that research is not an end in itself but a means to an end, and that the medical and civil society communities want to use this research and want to use it for progressive change, and that should be the ethic of the work. Thank you. Europe and Asia discussion group Dr. Nicola Kaatsch, IPPNW Board member; IPPNW-Germany In our group Europe and Asia we had six contributions from six different countries. It s a little bit hard to give an essence of the essence of what the speakers gave in our group. So it s boiling down and down and down again, but I am hoping that I didn t lose too much. And please contribute if you feel that something important is missing from that group. One of the contributors was coming from Finland, introducing a study about firearm injuries in Finland, and his main point I assume was that he did use hospital records within his studies, even though pointing out that most deaths do occur outside of the hospitals. He was pointing out that the reliability is very limited using hospital records, mainly because of using the existing diagnosis system and discharge records. These records are used by, again, inexperienced and untrained young health professionals. So he said the information we gather through this system is really not very reliable and credible.

3 We had another contribution coming from the UK, a represented from the Network of Gun Control in the UK that is in existence or working since The main point there was that there is strong evidence and experience from this network that there is a very close relation between the availability of arms and the actual gun violence. That was the main thesis and statement they gave. The next contribution was from Croatia, where somebody presented a study where they have studied the accessibility, knowledge, and attitude towards landmines, other explosives, and firearms among adolescents or pupils in Croatia. It was a study performed in 1996 until The study consisted of an intervention part and a testing part. The intervention part was a curriculum the group designed for primary and high school students to raise awareness about small arms in general. Before this intervention which was this curriculum, or this education, during one summer school, I think, they did pre- and post-testing about the attitude of these students and the knowledge about small arms. What was interesting I found about it were the obstacles the presenter was pointing out. Mainly being a lack of education of the interviewers while they performed the interviews with the high school students and the pupils. And a lack of clear definitions while carrying out this piece of research. They also found out that maybe the period of time or the timing was not the best because people were not yet ready to share experience and knowledge so closely linked with the war. And again the researchers were not prepared to deal with some post-traumatic stress disorders or the effects of the war still that arose in those pupils. They also found that there was a severe influence of mass media on the students, and they realized that educating the students would not be enough, but that the parental influence was very high and that they would need to include the parents in their education program. Then we had a contribution from Turkey, mainly it was an introduction of a private initiative from a family that lost 3 or 4 sons I believe by firearms. They founded a foundation and the main objective is to promote non-violent methods of conflict resolution. There is material I believe in the poster session area. This foundation does seek international support and contacts. Then we had a contribution from the Philippines. This statement mainly was about the fact that there is a lot of illicit trade of firearms taking place in the Philippines. And a very high level of organized criminality. SO a lot of work needs to be done there, the colleague said. Then we had a contribution that was the last one of the six, from Bangladesh. This colleague mainly talked about the restraints they had for data collection. He said that there was no real systematic system neither in the medical world nor in the juridical world to collect data. So they were dependent on mainly using local, national, and regional newspaper clips to collect data and inform themselves, and they also said and pointed out

4 that it is very difficult in a situation of ongoing terror and violence, even in the absence of a war, to collect data because there s a high fear in the population to share knowledge and experience. I believe one or two conclusions of the group in a discussion after these presentations were that there was a very big difference in public attitudes in the different countries. The group felt that one big need was to bring this conference theme into public debate much more. They felt that there is a strong need for public education in general in all of these countries. It was pointed out that there was a large need for creating a unified database. We did not discuss this in detail who could do this or whether this was already existing. We also pointed out that there needs to be a campaign probably really for decreasing the availability for guns and arms since there seems to be this very close relation to actual gun violence to the availability. And there was a suggestion to look further into the help of legislation as a tool to build campaigns and to deal with this issue. I believe that was the essence of our working group. Africa discussion group Notes provided by Paul Saoke, IPPNW-Kenya Country report meeting South Africa (Anthony Minnaar) Gun related violence has been a subject of national debate in South Africa. In January 2000 the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee for Safety and Security collated views from the public, which culminated in the redrafting of the Firearms Control bill. There are a number of contributory factors to the gun problem in South Africa. There is a growing number of legally acquired and privately owned firearms. Guns from illegal sources include those smuggled across South African borders, guns stolen from legal owners and home made ones. The situation is exacerbated by the ready availability and poor control of privately owned firearms. The AK-47s are used in taxi gang wars and are procured from Mozambique. The police have run several forays into Mozambique and managed to destroy 21,000 AK-47 assault rifles. The government initiated a gun buy back program (at R.6,000 per gun), which proved to be ineffective. Most owners turned in rusty rifles and kept new ones or turned in excess arms. South Africa is also a major conduit for arms in the region. Besides being a manufacturing country gun imports especially from the US are frequent. The customs department has a severely limited capacity to effectively inspect containers. For every 100 containers only 2 are inspected. Current efforts to curb illegal arms flows include the intended installation of powerful X-ray machines. However tracking illegal arms flows from neighbouring countries is still a major problem. Main government initiative through legislation has been to restrict private ownership (one

5 hand gun and one shotgun) for self defense and demand over five year period for handing in surplus without compensation. Nigeria (Ime John, Olusegun Odukoya, and Owens Wiwa) Nigeria has well over 1.5 million firearms in circulation in the country. Firearms are used by militias to propagate religious beliefs especially in the Northern parts of Nigeria. In 1999, more than 1200 lives were lost while 8000 persons were displaced in skirmishes in the north. Nigerian armed forces have also been known to use arms indiscriminately especially in the suppression of civil unrest. The Nigerian arms problem is resource based. There seems to be a very close association between the prevalence of arms in the oil mining areas and the presence of multi-national corporations. Comments from other participants indicated that these multinational corporations often create private militias to protect their interest. There is also growing concern from armed robberies. Collecting data on firearms is complicated by poor record keeping. Control measures are impaired by the fact that politicians have created ethnic militias in the furtherance of their political ends. The main source of information is the police department and they do not cooperate with civilian researchers. Lack of data is further hampered by poor record keeping in medical facilities, which often close down. Democratic Republic of Congo (Ruku Oyaku B.) The arms problem in Congo is basically a historical one. The instability, which rocked the country immediately after independence did not create an arms problem as expected. On the contrary when Marshal Mobutu took over in 1965, only senior government officials and political cohorts were licensed to carry firearms. The war in 1996, which toppled the Mobutu regime, drew combatants from many countries including Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Tanzania and Zambia. This subsequently created the arms problem in DR Congo. The second war to topple Laurent Desire Kabila in 1998 exacerbated the problem. Several warring factions supported by different countries emerged. Children were drafted into their ranks due to the portability of the arms used. There is evidence of child soldiers trained in neighbouring countries who have been re-united with their parents. Like many other African conflicts the Congo D.R. problem is also resource-based. International Rescue Committee (IRC) estimates indicate that more than 2,500,000 lives have been claimed by the war. DR Congo does not manufacture arms or munitions. Other armed opposition groups like SPLA/M and UNITA have operated from the Congo D.R. Difficulties of researching small arms in Congo DR include insecurity created by the ongoing war. The country is currently compartmentalized among different factions with fluid control over their territories. Due to the conflict situation, researchers would risk insecurity based on suspicion of espionage. In many cases the researcher would be suspected of compromising military logistics. There is lack of infrastructure in Congo and the little

6 there was has been destroyed by the war. Communication is also difficult (by road, telephone, air, etc.). The country is also too large with most of the population in the east displaced. Health care infrastructure has also been completely destroyed thereby making hospital sources of information invalid. However information can be gathered from international humanitarian organizations, which work in the region. The United Nations peace monitoring mission for Congo (MONUC) and OCHA would be useful sources of information for researchers at the moment. Uganda (Edison Mworozi) The political instability in Uganda began in 1966 when the Buganda monarchy collided with the government. This culminated in the overthrow of the Monarchy. Subsequent political tensions resulted in the 1971 coup, which brought Idi Amin to power. Amin s regime was marked by state sponsored massacres using small arms. Subsequent regimes between 1978 and 1984 did not disarm their opponents and this led to over accumulation of arms. Pockets of guerrilla resistance continued to exacerbate insecurity in different parts of Uganda. A particular persistent case is the cattle rustling in the North Eastern part of Uganda. The Karamojong s nodal characteristics include violence, and small arms have been integrated as part of this and have radically transformed the outcome of violent confrontations with other communities and law enforcement organs. Firearms are cheap and readily available. About 100,000 firearms are estimated to be in civilian hands in Kampala city. However the extent of the problem is not truly known due to the different and turbulent historical phases Uganda has experienced. The main sources of small arms in Uganda are chiefly state security agencies and private security agencies on the one hand and armed political factions on the other. However this second set also includes smugglers, criminals and poachers. To a significant degree, extra-territorial factors also contribute a great percentage of the problem with small arms. The National Islamic Forces (NIF) of Sudan provides absolute military support for the Lord s Resistance Army in the north. This rebel guerrilla faction is credited with thousands of deaths, maiming and displacement. Civil wars in neighbouring countries including Rwanda, Burundi, D.R. Congo and Somalia have also contributed to the small arms problem in Uganda. Containment measures have included: restriction of use of firearms by police; amnesty to armed oppositions; cutback of military personnel; institution of military and para-military tribunals; gun buy-back programs in the northern parts of Uganda; and community policing. However gun buy-back programs have not been successful and may not be feasible in the long run among the Karamojong due to the fact that they demand a high price for each gun submitted (1 AK-47 for 30 heads of cattle). Non-governmental organizations are currently promoting peace and human rights education, and peaceful conflict resolution. Research is hampered by the fact that there is no reliable historical documentation to inform the current situation. Past records were destroyed in the various military takeovers. The guerrilla activities in the north and the warlike practices of the Karamojong impair access to information in those areas. However hospital records could provide data on gun-related mortality and morbidity.

7 Kenya (Walter Odhiambo and Paul Saoke) Kenya plays host to refugees from Uganda, Somalia, Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Eritrea and D.R. Congo. Conflicts in some of these countries have spilled over into Kenya. Many of the small arms and light weapons have found their ways into the country through refugee conduits. Most of the arms in criminal hands in Kenya have entered the country from Somalia through smuggling rings. Khat a natural psychoactive herb grown in Kenya is exported in light planes at a very high frequency. Kenya does not have enough resources to adequately police the frequency of flights, which leads to large caches of arms entering the country. This has resulted in the increase of armed robberies and contract killings in Kenya s major towns. The government recently banned cross-border trade with Somalia but this measure is seriously under threat from khat traders and may soon be rescinded. One study by the International Resources Group indicated that there are 5,000 illegal firearms in a section of Nairobi city. In the north-western part, cattle rustling, which traditionally depended on primitive weapons (Spears, arrows and cudgels), has been radically transformed by the employment of small arms. The Turkana frequently cross the border with Sudan to acquire sophisticated light weapons for cattle rustling and also to attack their neighbours. The members of parliament recently passed a bill authorizing themselves to own firearms for personal protection. This is likely to increase the gun per capita and more violence. In Kenya legal arms especially owned by the Kenyan police cause most of the gun-related morbidity and morality. Kenya does not manufacture arms but has ammunition factory. The increase in gun-related violence corresponds sharply with the commissioning of the factory There is evidence that government arsenals are porous and lack effective mechanisms to control proliferation of both arms and munitions. Containment measures have included amnesty for gun owners who turn them in but this has failed largely due to the opacity in the whole process. Most of the guns handed over to the government officials turn up in the gun market again. Research is possible but may be compounded by the convoluted intestines of bureaucracy since firearms are military materials. Main sources of information would be hospital records, victim accounts and police records. The government has shown a willingness to cooperate with the civil society to stem the epidemic. However there is need for urgent confidence building measures in the general public. Zambia (Robert Mtonga) The Zambian Police service and the Zambian Army have the bulk of Zambia s stocks of small arms and light weapons (SALW). The President is empowered by The Firearms Act of 1969 to control stocks in the interest of national security and public interest. This constitutes licit arms in national armouries. The Armed security firms buy their arms with the knowledge of Government and require a license and certification as a regulatory measure. The movement of refugees into Zambia has been noted as another source of

8 SALW. Recent press reports indicated that in the Western Province of Zambia, refugees (and some ex-combatants) were exchanging SALW for livestock and other foodstuffs. The Zambian police service has also implicated foreign nationals in armed robberies and traced some of the SALW to neighbouring countries that are currently experiencing conflicts. Although Zambia has not been embroiled in civil strife or war, two of her neighbours are currently involved in serious conflict of various duration and intensity, namesly Angola and the D.R. Congo. Zimbabwe, Namibia and Mozambique, which share borders with Zambia, are immediately post-conflict countries South African freedom fighters had their headquarters and arms stock in Lusaka, Zambia. All these countries used small arms and light weapons. The Crime Prevention Foundation as well as the Police reports recorded between 3,896 and 5,000 armed robberies and about 1,347 murders between 1998 and This translates into a murder ratio of 13 per 100,000. These statistics do not include use of firearms in private and public places, gun related suicides, and extra-judicial killings by police and private security that are committed in the line of duty. Gathering of data is especially impaired by government legislation, which places the gun registry under the National Securities Act. However current trends indicate the government s willingness to work together in tackling the gun epidemic. The police department is the major source of information though their records are not reliable and also difficult to corroborate. Hospital records, victim accounts and the NGO-run Crime Prevention of Zambia would provide valuable information.