U.N. members, gun lobby face arms fight by Delia Cruceru

Almost 139 countries gathered at U.N. to develop a global Arms Trade Treaty hoping that it would prevent international arms transfers that fuel conflict, poverty and serious human-rights violations. "There's an "extremely urgent" need for controls on the international gun trade," said Kenya. But he American National Rifle Association (N.R.A.) says that it's an attempt of limiting the civilian gun ownership within nations. Greg Puley, of the Control Arms coalition of pro-treaty advocacy group said: "That's not what we're looking at here. The point is to control trade in weapons that contribute to conflict and atrocities." United States is the biggest arms supplier, with almost $13 billion in arms export agreements in 2005, as they provide with arms the War in Iraq and Afghanistan, Pakistan which is an U.S. ally, Saudi Arabia and the Arabian Emirates. Countries like Britain, Canada, France and others, proposed a treaty in which the full range of conventional weapons, from handguns to tanks and combat aircraft, will be covered. But the main problem is in Africa, where small guns and AK-47 assault rifles are smuggled or illicit dealed in favor of insurgents that kill innocent people. "We urge all governments to act in the interest of those millions dying," Kenya said in its submission. The U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will name this month experts from dozens of nations that will review the submissions of 98 governments, reporting back to the General Assembly in the fall of 2008 on what kind of arms trade treaty might be feasible.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070930/ap_on_re_us/un_gun_treaty;_ylt=Ao4gsRjjg1g6VaS6sEBa9FWs0NUE

by Delia Cruceru for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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