Guns in the South Pacific

More on the links between youth unemployment, boredom and civil security, courtesy of the Age:

Gun demand could trigger threat: ALP
Brendan Nicholson
October 23, 2006

LARGE numbers of military weapons stolen or bought from police and soldiers pose a dangerous threat to stability in the Pacific region, Labor has warned.

The Opposition's Pacific spokesman, Bob Sercombe, said Australia should use the Pacific Islands Forum, which begins in Fiji today, to push for uniform gun-control laws across the 16 member countries.

He said violence in the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Bougainville, Fiji and Vanuatu highlighted the increasing availability of arms and their role in regional instability.

The weapons were significantly worsening the impact of political conflict, tribal warfare, crime and domestic violence and pushing young and under-resourced states to the limit, Mr Sercombe said.

He released a discussion paper, "In the Line of Fire: Addressing Illicit Small Arms in the Pacific", which warns that the increasing demand for guns could trigger major arms trafficking in the region.

Many guns were in the hands of young unemployed men who used them to earn an income at the expense of their communities, Mr Sercombe said.

"Unemployment and boredom are factors behind the attraction of guns which are increasingly rented out or used in robberies as a means of livelihood," he said.

Australian researcher Philip Alpers said that of 7664 M16 and SLR assault rifles delivered to the Papua New Guinea defence forces since 1971, only 26 per cent remained in stock and similar numbers were missing from police armouries.

The discussion paper says there is evidence of urban raskol gangs emerging in Papua New Guinea's troubled Southern Highlands province.

"Concerns that the province suffers similar grievances and tensions that led to the 10-year conflict in Bougainville are disturbing," the discussion paper says.

The increasing number of guns in the Highlands posed a grave threat to democratic institutions and could bring serious violence during the coming elections.

The paper says many countries in the region do not record firearm details and only a few have computerised records of small arms owned by civilians.

Penalties vary considerably across the member countries.

Mr Sercombe said the threat could be reduced by cutting the flow of ammunition.

There was little use in the Pacific for the AK-47 automatic rifle because it was hard to find ammunition for it, he said.

Australia could help improve security at military and police armouries, he said.