Fight against small arms in Rwanda on track

Rwanda has adequately tackled internal proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons that were rampant in the country due to the 1994 Genocide revealed Army Spokesman, Major Jill Rutaremara. Rutaremara is part of the Rwandan delegation attending the three-day conference (18-22 August) on Small Arms and Light Weapons proliferation in the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa taking place at the Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala. “The situation is now under control but our biggest problem remains proliferation of arms in the neighboring country of Congo. It is our only worry and this needs regional political co-operation and diplomatic solutions,” Rutaremara said in an interview with The New Times. He pointed out that before the 1994 Genocide, the then Rwandan government had supplied these arms to Interahamwe militias who led the 1994 Genocide of Tutsi which caused the lives of over one million people. Organized by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies based in the U.S, the conference aims at developing a comprehensive strategy to combat small arms and light weapons proliferation within the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa. To curb proliferation in the region, all member countries are expected to brand all light and small weapons in their possession. The branding of guns will ease identification of state owned arms that are illegally acquired by criminals. According to Rutarema, the process of branding will soon begin in Rwanda after she acquired a new computerized branding machine. “The initial machine was manually operated and poor. We hope the process will soon begin, now that we have a new machine and a technical team in place to handle the exercise,” explained Rutarema. “Every gun imported to this region will be branded so that when a criminal is arrested with it, we can easily say that this gun is from Kenya or Uganda,” Dr.Francis Sang, the Executive Director of the Regional Centre for Small Arms –Nairobi Chapter, told participants during the opening ceremony on Monday. The national focal point that deals with small arms and light weapons proliferation though an independent body is located within the national police. The branding machine will insert an information bar code that can only be detected by computer to avoid manual alterations by criminals. Member countries have been given up to December 30 to brand all their weapons. Ends

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Fight against small arms in Rwanda on track