http://www.cdd.org.uk/smallarmsmusah.htm
In Africa, the sources of SALW proliferation are many and varied. While the thrust of international efforts to curb proliferation tend to concentrate on the manufacture and supply of new weapons, a major pipeline of SALW remains the stockpiles that were pumped into Africa in the 1970s and 1980s by the ex-Soviet Union, the USA and their allies to fan proxy interstate wars. These leftover weapons have found their way through clandestine networks involving rogue arms brokers, private military companies, shady airline companies and local smugglers to exacerbate on-going conflicts and facilitate the commencement of new ones in the continent. The break-up and deregulation of once state arms industries in eastern and central Europe has also led to the mushrooming of mini industries whose aggressive search for new markets in the developing world have made nonsense of existing export regimes. Africa itself boasts countries that are arms manufacturers – South Africa, Zimbabwe, Egypt, Morocco and Nigeria among others, and countries that are dotted with growing small arms cottage industries. Finally, small arms have found their way into civilian hands from official sources due to a combination of factors, including the breakdown of state structures, lax controls over national armouries and poor service conditions for security personnel.
>From: Wojtek Sokolowski <sokol at jhu.edu>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
>Subject: RE: [lbo-talk] Re: West and Africa (was HOW THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT
>IS BLOWING IT:)
>Date: Mon, 03 Nov 2003 17:41:33 -0500
>
>Joanna:
> > And please, let's not forget arms sales. There was a great article
>about
> > it in Harpers a few months ago.
>
>I thought that the African arms market was dominated by the Chinese-made
>AK 47, no?
>The F-16s are not very useful in keeping one's own population in line.
>
>Wojtek
>
>
>
>
>___________________________________
>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
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