After
Six
Abstentions on
Small Arms,
ICP Asks
Angola, Chad
&
Lithuania PRs
Why
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, May
22 -- When the
UN Security
Council
adopted its
resolution on
Small Arms and
Light Weapons
on Friday
there were six
abstentions,
including
China, Russia,
Venezuela and
all three of
the Security
Council's
African
members,
Angola,
Nigeria and
Chad.
Angola's
Permanent
Representative
Ismael Gaspar
Martins,
speaking also
for Chad and
Nigeria, said
in the Council
after that
vote that
“unfortunately
our proposals
regarding the
issue of
proliferation
and access to
small arms and
light weapons
to non state
actors were
not
sufficiently
considered
in this
resolution. As
a country
which has gone
through a very
painful
experience, it
would be
political
unacceptable
not to seize
this
opportunity to
address the
problem of
supply of
weapons to non
state actors.”
The resolution
said it is
“emphasizing
that the
illicit
trafficking in
small arms and
light weapons
can aid
terrorism, and
illegal armed
groups and
facilitate
increasing
levels of
transnational
organized
crime and
underscoring
that such
illicit
trafficking
could harm
civilians,
including
women and
children,
create
instability
and long-term
governance
challenges and
complicate
conflict
resolution.”
But the
resolution did
not mention
non-state
actors.
Chad's
Permanent
Representative
Mahamat Zene
Cherif said in
the chamber
after the
vote, “Chad
has observed
with regret
that a
resolution as
important as
this and the
object of
which was to
help those
regions
affected by
the impact
small arms and
light weapons,
and more
specifically
Africa, would
be adopted
without
involving the
representatives
of the
Continent in
this Council.”
After the
meeting was
over, at the
Security
Council
stakeout,
Inner City
Press asked
Angola's
Gaspar Martins
about the
arguement that
the
resolution's
reference to
terrorism
covered
non-state
actors.
He said the
two concepts
are different.
Inner City
Press asked
about the
trend, with
the Security
Council
declining to
hear from
former
president
Chissano for
the African
Union on
Western
Sahara. He
said, there is
a problem with
the Council. Video here.
Inner City
Press asked
Chad's Mahamat
Zene Cherif
about two
examples: the
airdropping of
weapons into
Libya, and the
“arm and
equip” program
for the Free
Syrian
Arm.
Mahamat Zene
Cherif said
the objection
was broader
that these two
cases,
destabilization
is happening
in a number of
places.
Gaspar Martins
added that the
intervention
in Libya has
led to the
spread of
terrorism in
the Sahel; he
cited Kenya as
well.
When
Lithuania's
Raimonda
Murmokaite
came out,
Inner City
Press asked
her about
these
abstentions
and these two
cases, and
Angola noting
the offer of a
carve out for
private
security
contractors
from the
concept of
non-state
actors.
Raimonda
Murmokaite
said that it
is not private
security
companies
causing mayhem
-- Inner City
Press said,
“Blackwater,”
she said “not
exactly” --
but terrorist
groups and
their
offshoots as
well as
criminal
gangs. “These
are the
guys... not
some nebulous
non-state
actors,” she
said. “We have
have gladly
included
pirates,” she
said, or human
traffickers or
smugglers, on
which the EU
is separately
asking for
Security
Council
action. We'll
have more on
that.
, 
