Towards a Safe and Secure Nation: The First Consultative Conference on Firearm Control, Ownership and Administration in Botswana, 13-15 May, 2003

Case Study on Implementarion by the Inspector General of Tanzania Police Force
Mr Omari Iddi Mahita

Note of appreciation

The Hon. Chairman,

Allow me first, on behalf of the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania, and on my own behalf, to express our sincere appreciation to our hosts the people and the Government of the Republic of Botswana for hosting this important conference whose aim is to make our member states a safe and secure place to live in. Our appreciation is also extended to the facilitators, SaferAfrica and Saferworld, whose record of performance is known to all of us. To the rest of the participants from different international organizations, I am glad to mention that your contributions here will not only help planning of firearm control regulations, ownership and establishment of administrative procedures in Botswana but to the rest of member states in the SADC Region and other subregions that may have to learn from our experiences.
Implementation of UN Protocol, UN Programme of Action, Bamako Declaration and SADC Protocol

The Hon. Chairman,

I wish to once again extend my appreciation to our field officers in Botswana and Tanzania whom I understand worked very hard to make our two countries in the foremost position of Implementing International Agreements and protocols to combat and eradicate the illicit proliferation of small arms, light weapons and other related materials. I will hereby mention some of our achievements as follows:
1. Implementation of Declarations and Protocols at national level:
2. Our second implementation phase of the National Action Programme started in April 2003.
  
  Several activities will be conducted during phase two and three of the project. Some of the main national projects for 2003 are as follows:
  1. Training and Capacity Building
    We intend to provide training to Regional and District firearm officers, training of border control firearm officers, training of specialized officers to investigate and prosecute firearm-related crimes and training of database entry clerks and record keepers.
  2. Harmonization of National Legislation
    This exercise was started in July 2002 by the establishment of a national task force which is responsible for studying a set of about 17 different legislations including legislation on explosives. The Harmonization of National Legislation is expected to attract participants from both SADC and the Great Lakes Region and Horn of Africa member states to complete the process of Harmonization of Legislation in our Sub-Regions.
  3. Education and Public awareness programmes
    Aside from the National Conference with NGOs which happened in June 2002, during phase one of the project we only managed to create some public awareness programmes and establish NGO network in the Regions and some of the districts. We are now busy supporting capacity building of NGOS to deal with small arms issues. At this time, and despite the fact that Tanzania has established Defence and Security Committees that also discuss and recommend firearm application licenses from the village to national level; we think public participation has not reached a stage where law enforcement agency can conduct joint law enforcement agencies operations with the members of the civil society. Civil Society participation in combating specific types of crimes such as cattle rustlings has been recognized to be effective in some of the regions by self defence groups known as Sungusungu and people's militia, but the system is not well organized. We are in a process of establishing community policing in Tanzania starting this year. We are making some studies from countries that have experience with community policing and we may even ask for assistance from Botswana who we think are doing well in the area.
The Hon. Chairman,
We have several projects that need implementation. The National Focal Point Committee members, through their ministries and departments, are working hard to solve problems such as the control of refugees who are known to be the main source of illicit proliferation of small arms and light weapons in the country. The Civil Society organization through planned and organized fundraising are also working to offset the budget deficit expected from the Government and donor countries to implement all the intended projects.

We have so far succeeded to collect huge amounts of firearms, ammunitions and explosives and plans are underway to destroy what was collected through recovery from suspects, or voluntary surrender, and the excess from the military and security organs of the state. It was only last month that the first bunches of explosives were destroyed in Bagamoyo near Dar es Salaam. We are expecting to destroy huge amounts of firearms on August 2003 in an occasion to mark Police Day in Tanzania.
Implementation of Declarations and Protocol at Regional Level
I am not very sure as to how much has been achieved by member states in the SADC and African region as far as Regional Cooperation is concerned. In the case of Tanzania, what I understand is that we have been able to conduct few activities and these were either conducted through our Interpol Subregional Bureau in Harare under the directive of SARPCCO Chiefs of Police, or with the support of SaferAfrica.
Membership cooperation in the SADC region
I am not very sure of what successes have been achieved in the SADC Region in enhancing regional cooperation in the area of firearm control activities. I understand that the SADC member states have been working very closely in controlling motor vehicle thefts where several joint operations have been conducted. I think SARPCCO has been able to combat some of the crossborder and organized crime such as drug trafficking under the coordination of our Interpol Sub-Regional Bureau in Harare. As far as coordination of drug control activities is concerned, we understand that SADC members states have succeeded in reducing drug use and trafficking in our subregions.

Our main concern now is how to make the activities of the SADC Secretariat more effective. It is expected that Tanzania will be the next Chair of SADC and yet we do not understand what activities have been undertaken by the SADC Secretariat on the small arms issue. It is unfortunate that we did not get any reply to our national requests for regional cooperation and I think even the member states in the region would like to know if there are any donor countries and specifically the European Union member states, who are our long-time partners as to whether they have given any assistance to the Secretariat based on the small arms commitments. SADC member states have the right to information of funding by donor community and to the distribution of the funds. It is important to know which countries have benefited from the funds and what projects have been implemented, if any. The required information will assist Tanzania and other members to make plans on how to implement SADC Regional projects on the implementation of the SADC Protocol. Member states need to be in a position to work jointly with the SADC Secretariat and the utilization of the services of the National Focal Point Coordinators who are in a better position to make proposals as to which regional projects need immediate attention.

During the last UN General Assembly in New York the SADC member states were united and were also supported by the European Union member states in adapting the BAMAKO Declaration as a guide to what is now the UN Programme of Action. Several member states have implemented some of the provisions of the UN Programme of Action, while some have their reservations on some of the articles that need to be reviewed. It is in our opinion that the SADC Secretariat has the duty of making preparations for the meeting of the National Firearm Coordinators in the subregion to establish our common position at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York next July 2003. The SADC Secretariat should urgently call a meeting of the SADC Group of Governmental Experts that has not met officially since February 2002 so that the SADC group can recommend a common position to be presented in New York. The last time the Group met was to agree on a common position for the All Africa Conference on the Implementation of the United Nations Programme of Action which took place in Pretoria in March 2002.

There are a lot of questions whose answers are not readily available from the SADC Secretariat but, in general member states wish to know as to how many member states have been supported by the SADC Secretariat, and what are our future plans as far as regional cooperation is concerned. The only regional implementation meetings on the SADC Protocol have been undertaken at the initiative of the SARPCCO chiefs who have agreed a workplan for implementation of operational measures in the region. Unfortunately, none of the requests of SARPCCO for the SADC Secretariat to be present in these meetings has been answered. Likewise, SARPCCO requested SADC to take the regional police workplan on arms as a proposal for support to the EU-SADC group of experts who met in Brussels in November 2002, but this has not materialized. We request the SADC Secretariat to inform member states as to what is the position of our requests to our funding requirement for regional cooperation which was submitted to them some time ago.

In addition to my remark on the SADC Secretariat, I wish to give our experience with the Nairobi Secretariat which was established after the Kenyan Government was mandated by member states to act on behalf of member states to implement the Nairobi Declaration on Regional Cooperation. The Nairobi Secretariat through donor assistance from the UK Government has assisted member states in the establishment of their National Focal Points. I understand that the Nairobi Secretariat has several plans to enhance regional cooperation in the subregion. For instance there was a meeting of National Coordinators with the Nairobi Secretariat in Nairobi from 24th to 25th April 2003 to discuss training needs for the Great Lakes Region and the Horn of Africa. We believe the member states in the Great Lakes Region and Horn of Africa will soon have a competent body that will look into National Interests of all member states once the establishment of National Contact Points and National Focal Points if completed.
International support to SADC member states

International support especially, from the Firearm manufacturing countries, is needed to control illicit manufacturing, marking, tracing, brokering, transfers and many other areas of technique and financial support.

Once again here I will not be able to say much as far as regional cooperation is concerned in relation to what international support is being provided through the SADC Secretariat, who has not communicated any information on the subject matter. All the regional measures that have been taken have fallen to the SARPCCO chiefs and the SARPCCO secretariat, but these are not organizations funded by the small arms cooperation agreements that fall under the SADC-EU cooperation umbrella. We hope the SADC Secretariat will now be ready to provide necessary information that will assist member states in planning their activities and in delegating the implementation of the Protocol directly to SARPCCO, including any funds that might be offered by partners such as the SADC-EU and SADC-USA processes.
Establishment of standard operation procedures in SADC member states

We understand that about fifty percent of SADC members have ratified the SADC Protocol. Tanzania ratified the SADC Protocol in November 2002 and we are in the process of harmonization of our firearm legislations. The task force of nine people that was given the responsibility of studying all relevant legislation on small arms, light weapons, ammunitions, explosives and other related materials was also responsible for creating the National Police on Firearms in accordance with International, Regional and Subregional Agreements and Protocols.

Our sub region requires us to have standard operating procedures, not only for those that need implementation as per SADC Protocol, but there are many other things that need coordination. At the Regional Level, the African Union needs to pay some attention to making sure that member states in the African Continent implement what is in the BAMAKO Declaration. We believe that successful implementation of the BAMAKO declaration will lead the African Continent to be more united and be able to reduce the existing conflicts which are the main causes of illicit proliferation of small arms and light weapons. The organizers of this conference need to be congratulated for having invited NEPAD representatives to make presentations on Peace and Security of NEPAD. For sure there cannot be real economic development in our region if the peace and security of our people is not maintained.

There are some basic areas where our member states need to establish standard operating procedures through regional cooperation. Some of the basic areas where regional cooperation can be effected are as follows:
1. Member states need to ratify the SADC Protocol.
2. For member states that have not yet established their National Focal Points they need to establish them, and I believe some may learn from Botswana and Tanzania who have some experience.
3. We recommend SADC member states to appoint their National Focal Points from the law enforcement agencies that deal with the control of small arms and light weapons as part of their daily business. We have experience in the Great Lakes regions and the Horn of Africa where some of the member states did appointed their national contact point from outside the members of the law enforcement agencies and the impact was that the coordination of activities was not properly implemented.
4. It is also recommended that SADC member states need to create their National Policies in accordance with the provision of the SADC Protocol and Declaration. The creation of the National Policy will automatically lead to harmonization of legislations.
5. In training and capacity building, the exercise should not only be limited to the members of the law enforcement agencies, but public awareness programmes and training should be provided. The best way to do this is for all the countries in the region to commence national plans of action that look at all these issues.
6. SADC member states will only succeed in combating the proliferation of small arms and light weapons by conducting cross-border meetings and operation. There are many other areas of cooperation, but we cannot achieve our aims and objectives if we do not have proper coordination.
Conclusion

In conclusion, may I argue that the problem of illicit proliferation of small arms and light weapons in all its aspects is a global issue. As such no single state can dare pretend to prevent, combat and eradicate it alone. In this understanding, therefore, it is not only the SADC member states that need to cooperate, but we should be able to cooperate with the firearm manufacturing countries as well, especially the European Union, who have been our partners for some time now. Last but not least, much as reliance on internal resources in implementing the National Action Plans and other regional assignments put forth by the regional and subregional bodies, the issue of funds cannot be overemphasized. Tanzania feels that due to limited resources, the less developed countries are still in dire need of the donor community support in hot pursuit of the proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons in all its aspects and menace. We ask for their partnership.

to top