Guns in Africa

Out of control
Sep 10th 2009 | NAIROBI
From The Economist print edition


A bunch of governments is trying to stem the flow of lethal weapons

THE UN reckons there are some 500m small arms in circulation around the world. At least 70m are Kalashnikovs. The Soviet-designed automatic assault rifle, the Avtomat Kalashnikova, was first manufactured in 1947 (hence its commonest version, the AK-47). Its compactness and durability have made it Africa’s killing weapon of choice since the 1980s, despite its inaccuracy. These days, the continent has all of the score of Kalashnikov variants, including the AKM, the Chinese Type 56, and the Serbian Zastava M70.
Only a small share of the thousands of hapless Africans killed every year by Kalashnikovs die in war. Most are victims of the police, robbers, cattle raiders and tribal skirmishes. In an attempt to make it harder for organised criminals to arm themselves, and in a nod to global counter-terrorist efforts, a group of ten eastern and central African countries, including Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda, which owe their liberation movements partly to the Kalashnikov, has agreed to harmonise gun laws. It has promised longer sentences for people who carry guns illegally and new electronic marking of state-owned weapons in the hope of cutting the number of Kalashnikovs seeping into the black market, where they are bought more cheaply than anywhere else in the world. The going rate in Somalia and Sudan is around $400, much cheaper than in Asia.

Police chiefs from this new African club of countries paraded their claimed success in curbing the small-arms trade by inviting journalists to watch piles of confiscated rifles being burnt. But that is unlikely to hurt the shadowy, highly profitable illegal trade. New Kalashnikovs keep flowing into Africa. Only a fraction gets confiscated.
Last year a hijacked Ukrainian ship with a cargo of tanks bound for South Sudan was also carrying 10,000 AKs and ammunition, according to the Small Arms Survey, a Swiss-based pressure group. British intelligence last month flagged up what may have been another Ukrainian attempt to export Kalashnikovs to Africa from its Soviet-era stockpiles. It is easy to sell the weapons once they reach Africa. Borders are porous. Corruption eases the flow. Arms dealers can readily buy forged licences and paperwork from officials.
The Kalashnikovs’ popularity puts a premium on the 7.62 x 39mm calibre bullets, which often cost more than those used in rifles such as the German G3 and the old British Lee-Enfield. African policemen and soldiers are often tempted to sell the bullets illegally, since they can each fetch as much as $1 or more. Tracking the ammo is tricky. It is seldom stamped, its provenance often even murkier than that of the guns.
In the harsh Turkana region of northern Kenya a British small-arms specialist, James Bevan, found Kalashnikov cartridges from 25 countries and 51 factories. Half of them, he reckons, had been bought or pilfered from state armouries.

Zimbabwe's still-muzzled press
Alternative voices longing to be heard
Sep 10th 2009 | JOHANNESBURG
From The Economist print edition
Independent newspapers are poised to come back

FOR years, newspaper readers in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, have had their daily fare limited to the Herald, a state-controlled propaganda sheet that can be relied on to praise President Robert Mugabe and his Zanu-PF party, often in the most turgid prose. This week a new organ was added to their choice with the launch of H-Metro, a tabloid focusing on entertainment and sports. But it is part of the same Zimpapers stable. Despite promises to free the press as part of a power-sharing agreement struck by Mr Mugabe and the rival Movement for Democratic Change, the country still lacks an independent daily.
Several publishers are waiting impatiently in the wings. Among them are Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe, which used to publish the Daily News until it was banned by Mr Mugabe in 2003 after its presses were blown up in 2001, and Trevor Ncube, a Zimbabwe-born former chief executive of South Africa’s M&G Media group, who is setting up a competitor, called Newsday. Even the weekly Financial Gazette, widely believed to be owned by Mr Mugabe’s ridiculed central-bank governor, Gideon Gono, may be planning a daily version. But none has yet been launched, because the Zimbabwe Media Commission has yet to be set up as agreed under the power-sharing deal.
Some say the commission may start licensing new (or old) publications next month. But Mr Mugabe is plainly loth to give rein to a free press. Radio and television are entirely in state hands, yet Zanu-PF must pay lip service to the unity agreement. Mr Ncube says H-Metro has been rushed into print to try to seize the market ahead of its inevitable liberalisation. “They are panicking,” he says.

En el articulo que habla sobre las minas quiebra patas en un pequeño camino de El Boquerón, un pequeño pueblo de Antioquia, se evidencia un problema que viene de muchos años atrás y que al parecer sigue creciendo, los heridos y los muertos por este acto de terrorismo aumentan cada año y los principales afectado, después de soldados y policías, es la población civil que no tiene nada que ver con el combate que se vive.

Según las cifras que se muestran sobre la guerra, se puede notar la gravedad de este flagelo y además es un problema muy difícil de controlar, ya que este tipo de armas de fabricación casera son difíciles de detectar por lo rudimentarias que son.

Todo lo anterior demuestra que la guerrilla de las FARC han sido y seguirán siendo durante mucho tiempo una organización terrorista que no respeta acuerdos internacionales que prohíben la utilización de este tipo de armas.