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afrol News, 6 January - Researchers warn against the high concentration of small arms in Africa's Horn after the terrorist attacks in Mombassa (Kenya) in November 2002. The "fact that rebel groups in Ethiopia and Somalia are in possession of surface-to-air missiles demonstrates that the state has already lost its monopoly of violence in many parts of the region," they warn. Peter Croll, Director of the Bonn International Centre for Conversion (BICC) sees the attack on tourism facilities in Mombassa in relation with the disintegration of state power in the Horn. "The availability of small arms and light weapons has threatened security in the Horn of Africa for a long time," he explains. With the attacks in Mombassa, the deployment of small arms and light weapons had "changed its character," the Germany-based centre says. While guerrilla troops had attacked airplanes with surface-to-air missiles in the 1990s during the civil wars in Angola and in Congo Kinshasa; the attack on Mombassa, however, was "distinctive" because it had "happened at a time of peace and because its targets were innocent tourists," BICC concludes. Mr Croll says that the Mombassa attack was "an escalation" of the situation, "for which, however, the breeding ground already existed." This breeding ground was to be found more in the northern neighbour states of relatively stable and liberal Kenya than in the country itself. Kenya however has many international flight connections and very permeable borders. The security situation in the country is characterized by a rivalry between the military, police, paramilitary and state units, and corruption is thriving. "Against this background," the BICC analysis goes, "weapons-smuggling that is not tied to any particular ideological aims or political extremism takes place - it is a feature of the economy and its purpose is to make money. Furthermore, policemen rent their service weapons out to criminals." The Bonn centre had been warning for some time of the dangers of proliferation of small arms and light weapons, including portable surface-to-air missiles. Far more than 100,000 of such missiles were produced and a great number were also exported during the Cold War, BICC explains. After the end of the Cold War, these weapons "were often sold or given away as surplus weapons." Many surface-to-air missiles had "ended up in shady hands or on the black or grey markets." The Russian SA-7 Grail was particularly widespread, as were the American surface-to-air missile FIM-92 Singer and the British Blowpipe. The SA-7 is also manufactured in China, Pakistan and Egypt. - It is against exporting them due to the constant danger of them falling into the hands of terrorists or reaching regions of conflict, the German centre says in its study. BICC was advocating the destruction of surplus small arms and light weapons that are no longer being used by the military. One region in which the illegal trade in weapons is especially thriving is the Horn of Africa, the study had found. The so-called SALIGAD-Project (Small Arms and Light Weapons in IGAD countries) has tried to create incentives that would keep the misuse of small arms and light weapons in the region at bay. As long as great numbers of weapons were in possession of private parties and state arsenals were not sufficiently protected, practical disarmament was the primary goal of this project. The precondition for this, however, was first to understand the local living conditions as well as the demand factors that lead to the purchase and misuse of weapons. Kiflemariam Gebre-Wold, the Project Leader of SALIGAD, concludes: "It is necessary to establish alternatives to the use of weapons in enforcing one’s interests or in dealing with conflicts - in particular in the minds of the people." Also Uschi Eid, Parliamentary Deputy Minister at the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, agreed to this. "Almost 90 percent of all victims of conflict are killed with small arms; over 80 percent of these are women and children," she states. The German government was supporting the fight against the proliferation and misuse of small arms with an annual budget of approximately 6 million euros, she adds. "Security and Stability in Africa is a focal point of G8 policy. In this context, the fight against the proliferation of small arms plays a major role." Also the US government, heading the united fight against world terrorism, immediately followed the Somali track after the Mombassa assault. The first theory launched in Washington was that the attack had been executed by a Somali Islamist group close to the al Qaida network. The al Qaida took responsibility for the Mombassa attacks in early December. The African Horn has remained at the attention of the anti-terrorism campaign since its early beginnings. Although Somalia seems to be relatively free of al Qaida cells, the lawless situation in the country is seen directly related to the great amount of terrorist attacks in neighbour countries. There have been two major attacks on Kenyan soil and two in Yemen. The US government also fears for the security at its installations in Djibouti.
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