The end of twentieth century and the beginning of twenty-first century has been witness to three trends. The first is that 90 percent or more of armed violent conflict are no longer between one State and the other. Most wars are now intrastate. The trend includes insurgency, dominant warlordism, militant religious fundamentalism, terrorism, ethnic, class or, caste struggles, civil war and so on. The second trend is about the priorities of disarmament not focused sufficiently on small arms – the primary weapon in intrastate wars. The international focus, however, remains on traditional issues of arms control, disarmament and non proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Thirdly, unlike conventional wars where 70 to 80 percent of casualties on militaries are caused by artillery fire, in intrastate wars, about 90 percent of casualties are attributed to small arms and light weapons. Among these, most pertain to civilians. Though the reasons are complex, they should not be ignored any longer by the international community. As negotiations for a peaceful world prolong, more people die or suffer due to the proliferation of small arms.

There has been a phenomenal rise in small arms cutting across nations and continents. In a pioneering study of proliferation of small arms, Tara Kartha’s research established that

·         Starting from 1991, about 10, 000 or more deaths have taken place each year due to small arms;

·         Non-State actors find it easy to access weapons like AK-47 their ammunition. They could be bought for a price as low as $8;

·         Small arms are equally lethal.

The end of the Second World War in South and Southeast Asia was marked by insurgencies in Indo China and Northeast India. Weapon stocks of the war were an ideal choice for the insurgents. During the Cold War, more small arms were pumped in by the Western powers to fight Communism in Indo China. Over a period of time small arms began to be traded with drug money obtained from the poppy growing areas of the Golden triangle in Mynamar, Cambodia and Thailand. This fuelled the ethnic insurgencies of Northeast India, Bangladesh, and Mynamar amongst others. In the 1980s due to Soviet occupation of Afghanistan the small arms found their way to Afghanistan; the USA providing the state of art small arms to mujahideen, and, the Soviets similarly arming their troops with the latest. Enriched with drug money, more small arms poured in via the old silk routes spilling into Central and South Asia.

Rapid urbanization, population explosion in urban centers and economic disparities led to gang and ethnic wars as in the city of Karachi in Pakistan. Small arms became tools of strife in the region. Many cities in developing countries witnessed an illegal small arms culture and concomitant violence.

A substantial portion of the world’s 500,000 annual firearm related deaths occur in South Asia. In a recent study of selected regions in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan, small arms came from two major sources: the “Afghan pipeline” and the post Cold War small arms stockpile in south East Asia. The case studies found the impact on humans to include fear, anxiety, suspicion, insecurity, displacement, change in occupation, and erosion of other civic values. Dialogue and peoples participation was the common solutions suggested by the affected communities.

Since 1990s, small arms have been receiving growing attention within the UN. In July 2001, a conference was organized on all aspects of the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons. The aim was to agree to a common programme of action to prevent, combat and eradicate the scourge. The states participating agreed to initiate measures to combat the threat at the following levels:

·      At the national level, creating and enforcing controls over various stages of production and international transfers of small arms. It included demobilsation and reintegration of combatants and destroying confiscated small arms among other procedures;

·      Working towards a legally binding instrument to combat the menace in various forms at the regional level;

·      Assisting the UN to implement a culture of peace globally.

The programme adopted had no legal status and therefore did not create a regime. Although, it is the first global step on collective action. To maintain momentum, the UN General Assembly decided to convene a conference in 2006 to review the progress as a follow-up of the biennial meetings of the states.

The people of South Asia and its neighbourhood are the real victims of this menace. Vested interests are likely to obstruct the implementation of the desired UN goals. The drug mafia, the transnational organized crime, terrorist and arms merchants all have much to loose and nothing to gain if the illicit trade and industry in small arms gets eliminated. Thus, purposeful national and regional initiatives are of utmost importance. The need of human security for the developing nations now demands it. Only then would peace and prosperity be achieved.