'Guns kill 1 000 daily'

2006-06-20 12:15

Johannesburg - Arms control campaigners are to present the ministry of foreign affairs with the world's largest visual petition at 10:00 at Constitutional Hill in Johannesburg.

They want government to know that thousands of South Africans are calling for tough controls on the international arms trade.

Twenty-eight thousand South Africans lent their faces to the international Million Faces Petition, the world's largest-ever visual protest document.

They join people from 150 other countries who want tougher controls on the arms trade in order to prevent weapons getting into the wrong hands.

The faces on the petition will join the faces collected around the world and will be presented to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan by the Control Arms Campaign at the start of the UN Review Conference on small arms and light weapons in New York on Monday.

Thousands are maimed

The Control Arms Campaign is a joint global initiative by Amnesty International, Oxfam International and the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), which includes Gun Free South Africa, the Ceasefire Campaign and the Coalition for Peace in Africa (COPA).

It aims to reduce arms proliferation and misuse as well as to convince governments to introduce global principles to regulate the transfers of weapons and a binding arms trade treaty.

"Arms manufacturers and gun runners must be held responsible and accountable for the consequences of their business to Africa's endless armed conflicts and inability to meet its Millennium Development Goals," said Chemist Khumalo, director for the Ceasefire Campaign.

Judy Bassingthwaighte, director of Gun Free South Africa said, "The Million Faces petition is a powerful, visual display of the massive public support here in South Africa and around the world for stronger arms controls. More than 100 000 lives were lost to armed violence between 1994 and 2004 in our country. Around the world 1 000 people are killed every day as a result of armed violence. Many thousands more are maimed, tortured or forced to flee their homes. The abuse of arms fuels conflict, poverty and violations of human rights."

South Africa will next week participate in a UN Review Conference on small arms and light weapons in New York, where campaigners hope initial agreement will be reached towards tough controls on the arms trade.

South African campaigners will be going to New York and will be calling on governments to agree to global principles to regulate the arms trade.

"This UN conference offers a vital opportunity for world governments to agree to a set of global principles on arms sales," said Oxfam South Africa director Shehnilla Mohamed.

- SAPA