AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE,
LONDON: The unchecked trade in ammunition is fueling conflicts around the world, including in Iraq and Afghanistan, Oxfam International said Thursday.
“Figures show that export data exists for only 17 percent of the 10 to 14 billion bullets manufactured every year, leaving up to 10 billion rounds for which no reliable data exists,” the British-based development charity said.
Its report showed that several big ammunition producers — including China, Egypt, Iran, Brazil, Bulgaria, Romania and Israel — provide no data at all on their ammunition exports, apart from shotgun cartridges.
The report, “Ammunition: the Fuel of Conflict,” was published ahead of the UN conference on the small arms trade which begins in New York on June 26.
Oxfam director Barbara Stocking said in a statement that during the conference, “governments must agree new global principles to govern both the small arms and the ammunition trade”.
The report argues that if bullet casings — which are often left at the scene of crimes and massacres — were properly marked, it would be far more likely that human rights abusers and criminals would be brought to justice.
Currently, markings only enable the manufacturer to be identified.
Oxfam's report outlined how illicit ammunition has flooded into war-torn countries like Iraq and Afghanistan as well as Somalia, Sierra Leone and Liberia in the last five years.
It said at least 76 countries manufacture ammunition, and the number is growing. Kenya and Turkey have both become producers in the last 10 years.
“Our research shows that new ammunition is widely available on Baghdad's black market,” Stocking said.
“There are two likely explanations for this: either it was smuggled in from neighbouring countries or it has leaked from coalition or Iraqi forces' supplies,” she said.
“In either case, weak controls mean lives lost on the streets of Baghdad.”
In researching the Baghdad black market in May, it found that new, high-quality ammunition was widely available in the Iraqi capital, in contrast to mainly old Iraqi stocks that existed just after the 2003 US-led invasion.
Researchers found bullets on sale in Baghdad that were manufactured between 1999 and 2004 in factories in the Czech Republic, Serbia, Romania and Russia.
In compiling details of the old ammunition stockpiles in eastern Europe, they found that Ukraine alone is estimated to have about 2.5 million tonnes of such stocks, including several hundred million rounds of small arms ammunition.
Unscrupulous brokers, who buy these bullets and sell them to war zones, are making huge profits, it said. In one case, a broker's profit margin was over 500 per cent.
There are graphic examples of what happens when ammunition runs dry.
“If you're not convinced about the devastating power a shipment of ammunition can have, think of Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, during the civil war in 2003,” Stocking said.
“In late June 2003, forces ran out of bullets and had to retreat. But once a new shipment arrived, they attacked again, ferociously, killing many innocent peopl,” Stocking said.
