"Tokyo Workshop on Small Arms" and Public Symposium "Small Arms and Civil Society"

May 25, 1999

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan will hold a Tokyo Workshop on Small Arms at Mita Conference House in Tokyo, from May 31 (Mon.) to June 3 (Thu.). The purpose of this workshop is to provide the U.N. Group of Governmental Experts on Small Arms, which has been preparing a report of the Secretary General to be submitted to the U.N. General Assembly this year, with an opportunity for further consideration. State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Keizo Takemi will speak at the opening of the workshop.
Besides seeking a solution to the small arms issue, this expert group will consider matters such as objectives and agenda for an international conference on small arms to be convened no later than 2001 by the U.N. The conclusion will then be submitted to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan this summer, around August.
This workshop will be attended by the 21 members of the U.N. Group of Governmental Experts on Small Arms: Algeria, Belarus, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Colombia, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Iran, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States (absent: South Africa and Mozambique); and some experts from the Department for Disarmament Affairs of the United Nations. The workshop will be chaired by Ambassador Mitsuro Donowaki, Special Assistant to the Minister for Foreign Affairs.
A public symposium titled "Small Arms and Civil Society" will be held on June 3 (Thu.), the last day of the workshop, from 2:00 to 5:00pm at the same venue. This symposium aims at enhancing the public awareness of the issue of small arms among the civil societies in Japan and at encouraging NGO activities in and out of Japan concerning the collection and disposal of small arms and demobilization and reintegration of former combatants into the civil societies in post conflict areas.
Small arms such as assault rifles are the principal weapons used in the regional conflicts that have frequently occurred in the post-cold war era, and they have caused a large number of casualties including many civilians. The inflow of small arms has further intensified and prolonged conflicts including that in Kosovo. In other regions such as Africa where, although conflicts have come to an end, public order is deteriorated by the excessive accumulation of the small arms that flowed in during the conflicts blocks the path of rehabilitation. Though the illicit trafficking of small arms connected with narcotics and terrorism has become a serious problem in the international community, the issue of small arms has largely been ignored because of a lack of international norms, unlike the case of weapons of mass destruction.
Japan has been playing a leading role in the small arms issue by submitting draft resolutions to the U.N. General Assembly and by chairing the U.N. Group of Governmental Experts on Small Arms and so on.

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