Media Statement - 22nd October 2006
‘We men and boys are gathering guns. If we don’t get our own
province by 2007 we will fight. It will be bigger than Bougainville. They had only a few guns we have plenty – not just homemade guns but high powered weapons.’
There are estimated to be 120,000 illegal small arms and light weapons in Pacific Island nations.
Before 2000 there were virtually high powered weapons in the hands of ordinary Solomon Islanders.
In one area alone,Tari, in the Southern Highlands province of Papua New Guinea, a senior police commander has told Labor he estimates that there are 10,000 guns.
Despite efforts by the Papua New Guinea Government under a current state of emergency in the province, only very small numbers of guns have been handed in.
The 2006 Small Arms Survey, produced out of Geneva, has warned local grievances in the province echo issues that sparked the long-running Bougainville conflict and there are grave fears about violence at next year’s national elections.
Elsewhere in the region, tension between Fiji’s military and government has flared again this week raising speculation of a coup. In 2000 George Speight’s men took parliamentarians hostage using Uzi and Galil assault weapons.
Small arms and light weapons significantly exacerbate the impact of political conflict, tribal warfare, crime and domestic violence, pushing young, under-resourced states to the limit.
Regional authorities fear that increasing demand for guns could precipitate major arms trafficking in the region, pointing to the urgent need to develop further weapons reduction initiatives.
Indeed, this month six foreign nationals were charged in Guam with a plot to smuggle arms from the US via Guam to Sri Lanka. It was alleged they had attempted to buy $1.2 million worth of black-market military weaponry including Stinger surface to air missiles for Sri Lanka’s Tamil Tigers
In a new discussion paper, In the Line of Fire: Addressing the Spread of Illegal Arms in the Pacific, Labor’s Shadow Minister for Overseas Aid and Pacific Island Affairs has called for, among other options,:
1. Australia to lead an urgent push for harmonisation of firearms legislation at the Pacific Islands Forum but particularly export/import controls and penalties.
2. Priority be given to the prompt resolution of negotiations over a revised package for the Enhanced Cooperation Program. This should include:
· The establishment of an independent taskforce of eminent persons to review problems with the legal and practical implementation of ECP Mark 1.
· Negotiations should be undertaken about a possible deployment of a regional policing unit to Papua New Guinea in the lead up to next year’s elections. Australian officers could backfill Pacific Islander positions in their home countries, freeing them up to serve with the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary.
3. An internal review of the Australian Federal Police’s International Deployment Group in light of the government’s planned expansion and lessons learned from the deployment of the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands.
4. The establishment of a pilot AusAID-funded Weapons for Development program strengthening existing community-led disarmament initiatives.
The key to security in Papua New Guinea is getting the ECP back on track.
As one senior police officer from the Gordons police station in the National Capital District put it: “People want them to come back. The bottom line is that they restore our confidence in honesty.”
The Labor Party believes that, provided that there is both goodwill and political will on both sides, it is possible to redraft the ECP without a constitutional amendment whilst meeting the need for adequate protection of Australian police officers.
“It is unfortunate that because Australia’s current relationship in the region is so poisonous, attempts to address vital issues such as this - which impact directly on Australia’s security - may be compromised,” Bob Sercombe said.
“This is a major regional security issue for the Pacific and Australia and it must be addressed.”
“Kofi Annan has said there is no development without security and no security without development. The proliferation of guns in the Pacific is a major barrier to improved stability in the region. More concerted prevention makes sense given Australia’s unprecedented involvement in the region to promote stability.”
The reality is that the major problems of HIV and poverty cannot be properly addressed until there is greater security allowing the free movement of health workers and access to services. This cannot happen while guns are present, he said.