Global Policy Forum

By Masood Haider

Pakistan on Monday blamed the United Nations Security Council's one-sided arms embargo in Afghanistan for exacerbating the problem of flow of illicit weapons and small arms into Pakistan.

Addressing the UN conference on "Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in all its Aspects," Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider observed one-sided and selective actions aggravated the problems which the international community sought to resolve.

Last December, the UN Security Council imposed arms embargo on the Taliban regime but it exempted the Northern Alliance from its stipulations.

"The weapons stocks present in Afghanistan continue to fuel the internal conflict in that country. Pakistan continues to host nearly two million Afghan refugees and the number has further increased in recent months by 200,000 new arrivals in the aftermath of unfair and unwarranted sanctions against Afghanistan. Our society also continues to be threatened by the influx of arms from the troubled region," Mr Haider noted.

"Unfortunately," he said, "Security Council's arms embargo on Afghanistan targets only one group. In the context of the endeavors of this conference to address problems associated with small arms and light weapons proliferation, it must be objectively assessed if such one-sided and selective actions do in fact aggravate the problems which the international community seeks to resolve."

He told the UN conference that Pakistan was "determined to rid our society of the scourge of small arms and light weapons imposed on us as a legacy of the Cold War."

"Pakistan became a victim of this proliferation to the extent that even our places of worship and business became a target of this menace. It threatened our political stability, social cohesion and economic growth. Realizing the magnitude of this problem, the government of President Pervez Musharraf resolved to take strong action to cleanse our society of this menace," he said.

He said "we devised a multi-pronged policy involving actions against import, procurement, smuggling, possession and exhibition of weapons."

"Pakistan applauds several regional initiatives which clearly recognize and seek to address the problem in all its dimensions, including human security, development, law-enforcement, de-weaponization and arms control. It is obvious that only such a comprehensive approach which takes into account socio-economic factors can effectively address the problems associated with small arms and light weapons," Mr Haider said.