Deadly disarmament: U.N. gun control.IN JULY, as the United Nations convened a conference on controlling the illicit trade in small arms small arms, firearms designed primarily to be carried and fired by one person and, generally, held in the hands, as distinguished from heavy arms, or artillery. Early Small Arms The first small arms came into general use at the end of the 14th cent. , Secretary-General Kofi Annan Kofi Atta Annan (born April 8, 1938) is a Ghanaian diplomat who served as the seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations from January 1 1997 to January 1 2007, serving two five-year terms. He was the co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001. announced, "To halt the destructive march of armed conflict and crime, we must stop such purveyors of death." He was silent on a related topic: the victims of U.N.-supported gun confiscation confiscation In law, the act of seizing property without compensation and submitting it to the public treasury. Illegal items such as narcotics or firearms, or profits from the sale of illegal items, may be confiscated by the police. Additionally, government action (e.g. programs, which have served as a pretext PRETEXT. The reasons assigned to justify an act, which have only the appearance of truth, and which are without foundation; or which if true are not the true reasons for such act. Vattel, liv. 3, c. 3, 32. for murder, rape, torture, and arson in Kenya and Uganda. In a report released during the conference, Independence Institute Research Director David B. Kopel and two of his colleagues noted that a disarmament campaign targeting pastoral tribes along the Kenya-Uganda border has displaced displaced see displacement. "tens of thousands of people, turning them into starving starve v. starved, starv·ing, starves v.intr. 1. To suffer or die from extreme or prolonged lack of food. 2. Informal To be hungry. 3. To suffer from deprivation. refugees" In both countries gun possession is illegal except for a politically favored elite, and in recent years the two governments, acting under U.N. auspices, have renewed a drive to disarm tribesmen who keep guns to protect their herds against predatory neighbors. "The government has decided to disarm the Pokot by force" Kenyan Security Minister John Michuki John Njoroge Michuki (1932 - ) is the Kenyan internal security minister. He is a MP from the Kangema Constituency. He was born in 1932 at Iyego location, Kangema division, in Muranga District. told Parliament in April. "If they want an experience of 1984 when the government used force to disarm them, then this is precisely what is going to happen." Michuki was referring to the mass killings, rape, and torture that had accompanied an earlier disarmament campaign. "As a government" another official explained, "you should talk from a position of strength. You cannot come in saying you are going to respect human rights." After the military moved against one village in May, 15,000 panicked refugees fled to Uganda. In Uganda, meanwhile, the government has been periodically killing civilians, bombing homes, and destroying crops as it seeks to disarm the Karamojong, displacing some 80,000 people. Kopel and his co-authors describe the campaign there as "enthnocide by disarmament." On June 26 the U.N. announced that it was withdrawing financial support for the Uganda campaign, but as of this writing it continues to fund Kenya's disarmament program. |
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