Nepal: Threat of Small Weapons

Kathmandu, Niraj Aryal: In the year 2008-2009, three years after the Maoists gave up bullets and embraced to the practice of ballots, crime in the country instead of taking a down turn surprisingly increased at an alarming rate. In the State led and non state led violence combined, some five hundred forty people were killed and more than seven hundred people were abducted across the country.

Only few weeks after the data was revealed to the pubic by a non-governmental organization, the then home minister Bam Dev Gautam proudly declared that eighty per cent of the crime was under control. However, few days after his surprising declaration, Pistol-culture reigned supreme in the Kathmandu valley. In the aftermath, an aide of the then Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal was fatally injured in a close gun attack in Koteshwor. Similarly, indiscriminate firing in Samakhusi, Kathmandu, in a broad day light, a person was injured. The incident scared many and fear-factor still prevails there.

Security agencies in Nepal have their work cut out. The exponential growth of small weapons is the cause of worry for the country, say experts. Only few months back Nepal Police seized two rifles and four pistols in the heart of Kathmandu and arrested three people who were later disclosed as the member of an Indian criminal group led by Tiku Singh. Tiku group-an offshoot of a gang led by Chota Rajan is involved in trafficking Small weapons across the porous Nepal-India border. Police source further reveal that the group is mostly active along the border in the districts of Bara, Parsa and Saptari.

After all what is Small Weapon?

Small arms and light weapons (SALW) are weapons that can be carried and used by one or two people, including handguns, assault rifles, machine guns, grenade launchers, anti-tank or anti-aircraft guns and light mortars. Light weapons, ammunition, grenades, landmines and explosives are also part of this category.

Be that as it may, in the year 2008, the police had seized some one hundred twenty five small weapons from the capital Kathmandu, this year it has already crossed the mark of one hundred thirty one.

“Nepal is undergoing a challenging transitional period, the fact that there is considerable increase in crime at time of the transition, as experienced in some countries across the globe, has become evident in Nepal”, says Dr. Bishnu Raj Upreti a conflict management expert of Nepal.

“During the conflict period there is the excessive use of small weapons, and, during the transition there is the increased social insecurity due to these weapons”, he adds.

“The growth in urban violence is mainly due to the excessive use of small weapons that are there in abundance in the public”, he adds.

Global Data reveal that 74% of small weapons are owned legally or illegally by the public.

“Of the 875 million guns circulating on the planet today, 74% are owned by non-state actors or civilians”, International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) data reveals.

This means that weapons in private hands outnumber government arsenals by 3 to 1.

As the majority of gun owners are civilians, so too are the majority of gun victims. Of the estimated 1000 deaths by gunshot each day, around 250 occur in a war or armed conflict. The remainders are homicides (56%), suicides (14%) and unintentional gun deaths (5%). Nine out of every 10 people shot dead are boys or young men (IANSA).

Nabaraj Silwal, Police Officer posted in Kathmandu accepts that small weapons are easily available in the Kathmandu market. “If you want a weapon just stay for some time in Ratnapark (heart of the capital) area, you will be surrounded by weapon-dealers in a minute”, Silwal adds.

“Of late most of the seized pistols come all the way from the US, yet they enter Nepal via India”, Silwal told a news paper recently.

Posted on : 2009-06-18 06:13:28

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