U N I T E D N A T I O N S Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN) EAST AFRICA: Small arms exacerbating regional insecurity NAIROBI, 30 November (IRIN) - Rogue soldiers from the Ugandan army and the rebel Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) are behind the sale of much of the arms and ammunition that contribute to the instability in Uganda, particularly in the eastern subregion of Karamoja, according to a report from the indigenous nongovernmental organisation Action for the Development of Local Communities (ADOL). The NGO, which conducted research on small arms between April and June, funded by the Swedish government and Action by Churches Together (ACT), said that Gulu was a major internal source of guns and ammunition, the government-owned New Vision newspaper reported on Tuesday. ADOL's findings were presented at a regional conference on small arms trafficking in the border regions of Sudan, Uganda and Kenya, held at the Crested Crane Hotel in Jinja, Uganda, last week and attended by politicians, religious leaders and representatives from civil society organisations. Arms and ammunition - some of them captured from the rebel Lord's resistance Army (LRA) - were removed from the Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) barracks in Gulu town with the connivance and protection of well-placed officers, according to the NGO report. UPDF spokesman Lt-Col Phinehas Katirimina asked that those who knew of such incidents should help the army zero in on the individuals so that it could tackle the problem. "If they could help us know, we would prosecute them because the sale of a gun [by a soldier] is an offence under our law," the New Vision quoted him as saying. A new AK-47 assault rifle costs between 100,000 and 150,000 Ugandan Shillings (US $57 to 85.6) at entry points to Uganda (the main entry points are along the common borders between Kenya, Uganda, Sudan and Ethiopia) and USh 400,000 to 500,000 ($228 to $285 in the interior), according to the New Vision. Bullets range in price from USh 100 to 1,000 (between 6 and 60 US cents), it said. The conference on Small Arms Trafficking in East Africa, at which the ADOL report was presented, also heard that the SPLA was the main source of arms in Karamoja region, where they are intimately linked to a growing economy of cattle raiding and crime. The Didinga (Dinka), Buya and Toposa people of southern Sudan also traded directly in guns and ammunition, most of which they got from the SPLA, according to speakers at the conference. SPLA sources who attended the conference said that the arms came from deserters. The conference also heard that some of the arms being traded illegally had been given by the Sudanese government to militias and government-aligned tribes to fight the SPLA, and had later come on the open market. "As of now, a new dimension of gun trade has set in," according to Ugandan Minister of State for Karamoja Affairs Peter Lokeris, quoted by the New Vision. "The gun is looked at as a convertible currency. From a gun, one can get cash - and from cash, cows. From cows, one can get guns and, from guns, other merchandise. The trade has become lucrative." Arms trafficking has fuelled insecurity, often related to cattle raiding, along the common borders of Uganda, Kenya, Sudan and Ethiopia - which is "expansive, poorly policed and very rough terrain," according to Mwachofi Singo of the Security Research and Information Centre (SRIC), Kenya. The Jinja conference called on governments in the region to come up with concrete plans to rehabilitate and develop marginalised pastoral communities, and recommended that their security agencies be encouraged to share intelligence and information on illegal arms trafficking on security matters, the Catholic Information Service for Africa (CISA) reported on Wednesday, 28 November. Participants also called for cross-border and inter-faith polices on cross border peace initiatives, peace education and awareness programmes, CISA said. The fight against arms trafficking - which escalates conflicts with devastating impact on human and state security - will not succeed unless the internal, regional and international dimensions of this illicit trade are addressed, together with disarmament of key tribal groups in Uganda, Kenya and Sudan, it added. [ENDS]