West Africa And the Moratorium On Small Arms

[Archie]

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has decided to extend a moratorium on small arms. The origin moratorium was started in Nov 1998 in an effort to "... prevent further conflicts in their region, "

"Two years after the signing of the agreement, civil strife continues to escalate in the sub-region. Altough, the Liberian war, which began in 1989, was at its peak during the declaration of the moratorium, Liberia has been consistently accused of engaging in illegal arms activities thus threatening the peace of its neighbors as seen in especially Sierra Leone and Guinea. The rebel Revolutionary United Front of Sierra Leone has remained intransigent in spite the Moratorium. The intransigent RUF, which has been killing and amputating innocent civilians, has been allegedly supported by the government of Liberia for which the United Nations has imposed selective sanctions on the Taylor government. The Moratorium was signed before the insurgents went on the rampage in Southern Guinea bringing another round of trauma to the over 300,000 refugees and tragedy to that country."

"In Ivory Coast, former President Robert Guei is described as law in the western sector of that country where he crouches. "

Excertped from an article by Musue Noha Haddad; Copyright The Perspective. Distributed by All Africa Global Media(AllAfrica.com)

There is more. It is boring in it's repitition of horror stories and depictions of "strong men" who are essentially war lords or gansters. Essentially, this is "gun control". Shocking that it doesn't work, isn't it?

 

[JoshM75]

Laugh or Cry

The ECOWAS group of nations decided to set up a Peacemaking force for duty in Sierra Leone.

The ECOMOG [Economic Community of West African States Monitoring Group] force soon became more commonly referred to as 'Every Car Or Movable Object Gone'.

The Indian Army Commander complained that the Nigerian contingent was openly involved in the war and murdering civilians.

Solution: The United Nations fired the Indian Commander and replaced him with a Kenyan General.

The Indian contingent of ECOMOG, which was well equipped and the most professional rightly took offence and left. Shortly after ECOMOG basically dissolved.

The fact is that 77% of UN PeaceKeepers come from Third World nations, while some are highly professional [eg Fijian troops in the Sinai] others [eg Bulgarians aka Vulgarians in Cambodia] are not.

In a perfect world the solution IMO is to redraw the political map of Sierra Leone along Tribal lines and then form Village Militia's. Sadly many Autocratic leaders prefer instability within their nation as it keeps the population to fragmented to think about the future.