UNITED NATIONS: Western and African members of the UN Security Council criticised each other on Friday after the 15-nation body narrowly passed a resolution calling for global action against illicit trade in small arms and light weapons.
The resolution, which was drafted by this month’s council president, Lithuania, passed with nine votes, the minimum needed for adoption. Six countries — Russia, China, Angola, Chad, Nigeria and Venezuela — abstained, citing a failure of the resolution to address the issue of non-state actors.
Lithuanian Ambassador Raimonda Murmokaite, who spearheaded the push for the resolution, rejected that criticism. She said it called upon states to identify ways to counter the illicit transfer of small arms while urging the United Nations to do more to protect and secure arms stockpiles while collecting and destroying illicit caches.
“Every minute as we speak, a life is lost because of the illicit trade or misuse of small arms and light weapons,” she said.
The resolution calls on states to prevent the transfer of weapons to “armed groups and criminal networks that target civilians and civilian objects” as well as to terrorists.
French Ambassador Francois Delattre said small arms kill half a million people a year, making them “by far the most deadly weapons in the world.”
Angola, Chad and Nigeria, the three African council members, sharply criticised Western countries, accusing them of ignoring African concerns. They were particularly incensed the text did not include language on “non-state actors.”
It was a view that Russia echoed in the council meeting.
Several Western diplomats said the Russians had lobbied hard over the past week to persuade fellow council members not to support the draft resolution.
Chad’s UN ambassador, Mahamat Zene Cherif, said he was “deeply disappointed and shocked” about what he suggested was blatant disregard for the African positions.
US Deputy Ambassador David Pressman dismissed the complaints of the Africans, saying they appeared to have an “ulterior political objective.” He offered no detail.
British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said there was no need for “ill-defined and practically unenforceable new statements ... on the subject of ‘non-state actors.’” The resolution urges countries to join the global Arms Trade Treaty, a pact that Russia has said it will not sign.
African delegates suggested private security companies were non-state actors to be concerned about. Murmokaite dismissed that as well.
“It is not private security companies which are killing, maiming, raping and recruiting children,” she said.
— Reuters
