Governments urge broader control of arms

Governments urge broader control of arms

Rita A. Widiadana and Wahyoe Boedhiwardhana, The Jakarta Post,
Jimbaran, Bali

Delegations to the United Nations (UN) Workshop on Transparency
in Armaments here have stressed the need to enhance transparency
in the arms trade beyond the seven categories of major standard
arms as presently stated in the UN Registration of Conventional
Arms.

Marking the end of the two-day meeting on Saturday, the
delegates suggested that given the new and diverse forms of
conventional arms currently being developed and traded worldwide,
the seven categories of conventional arms in the UN Registration
should be expanded.

According to the UN Registration of Conventional Arms, which
has been effective since l992, UN members are required to report
their procurement and possession of conventional arms including
battle tanks, armored vehicles, large caliber artillery systems,
combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles and
missile launchers.

The delegations have also called for countries to improve the
quality of data provided by governments through better exchange
of information.

Discussions during the two-day event were devoted to the two
armaments transparency instruments of the United Nations, namely
the United Nations Registration of Conventional Arms (established
in l992) and the United Nations Standardized Instrument for
Reporting Military Expenditure, which has been in operation since
l981.

The primary purpose of the workshop was to achieve a higher
level of global participation by discussing with government
officials and experts the objectives, procedures and parameters
of the two transparency instruments.

During the meeting, the Brunei Darussalam delegation submitted
their country's reports on the required registration of seven
categories of conventional armaments.

Tsutomu Ishiguri, Asia-Pacific Director of UNDDA, expressed
approval for the Brunei report on its procurement and stocks of
conventional arms, as well as military expenditure.

"I deeply congratulate Brunei Darussalam for its submission of
the reports and I'm glad that Laos will follow soon in
participating in the UN Registration of Conventional Arms,"
Ishiguri said.

To date, 162 countries have regularly, or at least once,
reported their stocks of conventional arms, and 102 countries
have joined in the UN Instrument for Reporting Military
Expenditure.

"We, the delegations, stressed the need to maintain
consistency of participation in reporting military expenditures
and encourage further participation for countries that have not
done so," he said.

Previously, Moch. S. Hidayat, Indonesian Representatives to
the United Nations, explained that the participation of UN member
states in the two UN instruments was very important.

"Countries in conflict areas, including the Middle East and
South Asia, are required to report and register their armaments,"
he said. Many of these countries obtained advanced weapons either
by importing them or producing them.

"Countries that produce their own armaments usually do not
register their stocks or military expenditure with the United
Nations," he said. However, he admitted that the UN instruments
were not binding and therefore there were no sanctions against
countries that violated them.

Hamzah Thayeb, Director for International Security and
Disarmament at the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said
in his closing remarks that the UN Workshop was crucial as it
provided a deeper understanding of the two UN instruments.

"This meeting has given Indonesia and its people greater
international credibility in the aftermath of the Oct.12 Bali
bombings," he said.

UNDDA and the Indonesian government jointly hosted the two-day
workshop. Among the main sponsors were Canada, Japan, Germany and
the Netherlands.

The workshop was attended by representatives of all 10 ASEAN
member states. Other participants were East Timor, Germany,
Japan, the Netherlands, Australia, China, Papua New Guinea,
Republic of Korea, Romania and the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe.