Introduction
The Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS) and its 15 members (1) have long understood the destabilizing
and deleterious effects of small arms and light weapons (2) on the region.
Their decisions to undertake six regional peacekeeping operations since
1990 acknowledge these challenges and underscore their resolve to confront
them.(3) Indeed, the members, working unilaterally and together,
have been at the forefront of international efforts to combat this scourge.
A noteworthy example is the ground-breaking initiative of the Government
of Mali to enter into a meaningful dialogue with members of its Tuareg
and Arab minorities, resulting in the voluntary disarmament of 3,000 combatants
in 1996 (Poulton and ag Youssouf, 1998). The 1998 ECOWAS Moratorium on
Importation, Exportation and Manufacture of Light Weapons in West Africa
represented an important step towards addressing small arms proliferation
in the region.(4) Recent notable developments include plans to transform
the moratorium into a legally binding instrument, the decision to terminate
the Programme for Coordination and Assistance for Security and Development
(PCASED) and replace it with the ECOWAS Small Arms Control Programme (ECOSAP),
and the creation of a Small Arms Unit (SAU) at ECOWAS headquarters.(5)
The Small Arms Survey, responding to an initiative launched by the Foreign Ministry of Mali as chair of the Human Security Network (HSN), and with the support of the Governments of Canada, Norway, and Switzerland,(6) agreed to undertake a study of armed groups and small arms in the ECOWAS region. "Armed groups" in this report are groups equipped with small arms that have the capacity to challenge the state's monopoly of legitimate force.(7) It was believed that a study that focused solely on armed groups in opposition to the state would be oflimited utility, for three principal reasons. First, history shows that governments in the region change frequently and often violently. Indeed, every country in ECOWAS has experienced a military coup d'état except two: Cape Verde and Senegal. Thus, an armed group formed ostensibly to protect the state may soon find itself in opposition to it as a result of changing circumstances. Second, groups' allegiances may shift regardless of what happens in the capital. Third, a group might support the state politically and still challenge its monopoly on coercion. The study, however, does not cover small-scale banditry and low-level criminal activity, nor does it document private security companies that are becoming more numerous but in West Africa are understood not to be equipped with firearms.
Endnotes
(1) ECOWAS, established in 1975, originally had 15 members: Benin (then known as Dahomey), Burkina Faso (then known as Upper Volta), Côte d'Ivoire, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo. Cape Verde joined ECOWAS in 1977 and Mauritania left the organization in 2000.
(2) The Small Arms Survey uses the term 'small arms and light weapons' broadly to cover small arms intended for both civilian and military use, as well as light weapons intended for military use. When possible, it follows the definition used in the United Nations Report of the Panel of Governmental Experts on Small Arms (UNGA, 1997):
- Small arms: revolvers and self-loading pistols, rifles and carbines, sub-machine guns, assault rifles, and light machine guns.
- Light weapons: heavy machine guns, hand-held under-barrel and mounted grenade launchers, portable anti-aircraft guns, portable anti-tank guns, recoilless rifles, portable launchers of antitank missile and rocket systems, portable launchers of anti-aircraft missile systems, and mortars of calibres of less than 100 mm.
The Survey uses the term "firearm" to mean civilian and military hand-held weapons that expel a projectile from a barrel by the action of an explosive. Unless the context dictates otherwise, the Survey uses the term "small arms" to refer to both small arms and light weapons, whereas the term "light weapons" refers specifically to this category of weapons.
(3) One peace operation, the ECOWAS mission for the Guinea-Liberian border (authorized in 2000), never deployed. The five others included Liberia (1990-99), Sierra Leone (1997-2000), Guinea-Bissau (1998-99), Côte d'Ivoire (2002-04), and Liberia again (2003). See Berman and Sams (2003).
(4) For an overview of the ECOWAS moratorium and other small arms control initiatives in the region, see Ebo (2003).
(5) In December 2004 the role of ECOSAP and its relationship to the SAU were still being worked out. Getting this relationship right and ensuring that civil society and national commissions are appropriately engaged will largely determine whether these developments are successful.
(6) More specifically, support came through the Human Security Programme of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (Canada), the Royal Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Norway), and the Département Fédéral des Affaires Etrangères (Switzerland).
(7) For a detailed discussion of the rationale behind this definition, see Policzer (2004).
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