Presentation for
The Tokyo Follow-up Meeting of the United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in all its Aspects
Tokyo, January 23-25 2002

GEMMA Kentaro
Project Advisor, Japanese Government Research on Small Arms Issues in Cambodia

• Thank you Mr. Chairman. First of all, I would like to thank the Government of Japan for giving me the opportunity to attend such an important, meaningful, and timely meeting today.

Introduction: Small Arms in General

• Small Arms and Light Weapons are weapons of mass destruction. Globally, these weapons claim about 700,000 lives each year with over 80 % of victims being women and children. Without a doubt, the illegal use of such weapons and the vicious cycle of violence their circulation creates, poses a huge threat to human security. Tackling this problem is the responsibility of the whole of the international community.

• There are two main approaches to tackling this problem. The first approach is national and international efforts aimed at preventing the circulation of small arms, involving activities such as the drafting and implementing of Arms Laws and regulations. The other approach involves activities aimed at reducing the number of small arms existing at the Grass-roots level. Both of these approaches aim to reduce the social damage caused by small arms, especially in conflict and post-conflict areas.

• The Japanese Government has been actively involved in both approaches since 1995. At the international level, it is deeply committed to the United Nations Panel and the Group of the Governmental Experts on Small Arms, and the first United Nations Conference on Small Arms issues in 2001. Since last year, Japan has been implementing a grass-roots weapons collection project in Cambodia in cooperation with the European Union.

• It is this grass-roots activity initiated by the Japanese Government and the EU that I would like to talk about today.

Cambodian Situation

• First of all, let me briefly explain about the situation in Cambodia.

• As the world has come to realize, Cambodia experienced a catastrophic trauma at the end of the last century whose effects continue to haunt it today. Through the course of 30-years of conflicts, it is estimated that more than one million Cambodians have been sacrificed to small arms and light weapons.

• Since 1999,

  under the initiative of the Royal Government of Cambodia, more than 112,000 weapons have been collected and more than 70,000 weapons have been destroyed. However, it is estimated that more than 100,000 weapons still exist in Cambodia.

• Research by the Working Group for Weapons Reduction in Cambodia has shown that approximately one household out of every 3 to 5 possesses small arms, such as rifles. There are several reasons for civilians keeping their weapons post-conflict. As a result of a long-term, inbred culture of violence, it is not unusual for people to resort to weapons as their first solution for resolving problems. In rural areas, villagers often use weapons to threaten others in their communities. Since a lack of trust exists between villagers and the security forces, they tend to think of weapons as tools to protect themselves and their families from the security forces who are supposed to protect them. In urban areas, guns and their use are often status symbols for youths and those in positions of power.

• There are three main kinds of weapons causing social problems in Cambodia; illegally possessed weapons held by civilians, cached weapons in mountains and forests, and surplus weapons from military forces. A White Paper of the National Police of Cambodia showed that in the first semester of 2001, more than 1,000 armed crimes were reported. In addition, cached weapons, which often contain unexploded ordnance, pose a significant threat to rural communities.

Project in Cambodia

• In 1997, the European Union and the Japanese Government agreed to cooperate on tackling this issue in Cambodia. The EU assigned a project team called EU ASAC (Assistance on Curbing Small Arms and light weapons in Cambodia) to implement a comprehensive program for small arms control in March 2000.

• EU ASAC’s comprehensive program has 5 closely inter-linked components; weapons collection, weapons destruction, the drafting of a new arms law, improving safe storage and registration of small arms, and public awareness. Based on the agreement of 1997, the Japanese Government in cooperation with EU ASAC has implemented a weapons collection pilot project called Weapons for Development in Pursat Province, central Cambodia The Japanese government has provided funds of about US$ 190,000 and sent an expert to engage in grass-roots activities to reduce the number of small arms in Cambodia.

• Weapons for Development is an innovative weapons reduction mechanism, collecting weapons from villagers in exchange for assistance in improving social infrastructure and public order by offering development projects to the target areas. The development is parallel to villagers’ needs, so that the target communes can obtain sustainable benefits from it. Sustainable development is absolutely necessary if Peace Building is to occur in the target areas.

• The key elements of WfD are Weapons Collection and Sustainable Development, Police Support and Public Awareness. WfD has a number of objectives, such as weapons reduction, improving security, strengthening civil society, confidence building, and capacity building, through which the ultimate goal of Peace Building is be achieved. Each of the four elements is completely inter-dependent and each is essential for the success of the project.

• The direct link between security and development is at the heart of the WfD philosophy. When peace does not exist, development cannot occur. As a result people have no security; no food security, no housing security, no community security. Yet peace can only come about when people have these securities, which in turn can only be achieved through development. When people are confident that they can feed and house their families and prosper, they are reluctant to resort to violence. The problem is cyclic and thus the solution must be the same.

• Improving security is the main objective of the Police Support element of WfD. Villagers will not surrender their weapons unless they feel secure in their communities, so we recognize the importance of assisting the police in order to improve the security situation in the target areas. A series of workshops are held in the villages in order to build confidence between villagers and the police. Through these workshops, a foundation is built for the voluntary surrender of weapons by villagers.

• It must be remembered that in rural areas the police often receive no formal training at all. Thus, the police are provided with equipment and training in order to help them work in a more professional manner.

• Through the Public Awareness campaigns, villagers gain an opportunity to realize the dangers and social consequences of small arms. The campaigns encourage the voluntary surrender of weapons, cooperation with others in the community to surrender more weapons and also aim to build confidence in the ability of the police to provide security.

• WfD is unique in that the development is offered as an incentive to the target communities rather than to individuals. There have been a number of weapons collection projects implemented in post-conflict areas based on buy-back schemes. If weapons are collected from individuals in exchange for money, weapons are given a monetary value rather than a peace value. In order to succeed, the scheme must offer higher than the market price.

  This raises the price of weapons, makes them difficult to collect and risks criminal elements importing weapons into the area, thus increasing rather than decreasing the proliferation of weapons. Buy-back schemes therefore merely serve to encourage the further vicious circulation of small arms by creating an arms trade.

• Under WfD, these problems are avoided. No individual can monopolize incentives. Villagers in the target areas receive equal benefits, in the form of sustainable development for their children and the next generations. The impact on their communities is huge.

• Under WfD, civil society plays a crucial role. Since the weapons collection in WfD is based on the voluntary surrender of weapons by civilians, involving civil society in this issue is the key to success. In cooperation with local NGOs who run community public awareness projects, WfD encourages them to participate directly in the peace building process and thus become involved in their own capacity-building.

• In the pilot project in Pursat Province, 2,028 weapons have been collected from the target areas and 9 development projects have been initiated as incentives. These projects take the form of brick schools, small rural roads, bridges, culverts and water wells. Based on our feasibility studies in the villages, the total number of weapons to be collected is 2,600. Each commune and village in the target area has signed a contract stating that a specific number of weapons will be surrendered in return for a development project they deem most beneficial to their community. When villagers ask “How many weapons do we need to surrender to get development?” our answer is “All of them!”

• There are approximately 10,000 households in the target area, so the figure of 2,600 translates to 1 weapon collected from every 4 households. Considering the figure mentioned earlier from the WGWR survey, this is an acceptable number of weapons to collect in exchange for development incentives.

Conclusion

• Weapons for Development has a variety of impacts. It is not a development project or merely a weapons reduction project. It is a Peace Building Process that is tackling the causes and effects of war, such as poverty and social exclusion. People’s daily lives are being improved by sustainable development projects; the chances of creating and maintaining good governance and democratic decision-making are being strengthened; the concept of a civilian peace-building government is being promoted; the chances for decentralized development are being improved and thereby we are fighting to reduce poverty, sickness, hunger and ultimately violence. By reducing violence through collecting and destroying weapons, the risk of future conflicts ravaging Cambodia once again is also being reduced. Through this process, ordinary people truly begin to believe in the hope of sustainable peace.

• The Japanese Government is researching ways to improve this project and further contribute to this issue in Cambodia. In particular, it is considering both a qualitative and quantitative expansion of the WfD project. It will continue to cooperate with the Royal Government of Cambodia, EU ASAC, local and international NGOs, and other various actors to tackle small arms and light weapons issues. I hope to see this kind of project spread across Cambodia and eventually to other areas of the world plagued by small arms and light weapons.

• It is obvious, as H.E. Sar Kheng, Deputy Prime Minister of Cambodia, has stated, that “Weapons are blocking progress towards development, human rights and democracy in Cambodia.” I would like to insist that international society pay more attention and resources to this issue. The more “Flames of Peace” we witness, a more peaceful world we can live in.