Samoa ratifies landmark arms treaty

Transcript

Regional campaigners against the global arms trade say Pacific Island countries should follow Samoa's lead and ratify a landmark international treaty.

Samoa is the first among Pacific Island countries to ratify the Arms Trade Treaty which seeks to thwart the flow of arms to conflict regions.

Kiribati, Nauru, Palau, Tuvalu and Vanuatu have signed but ratification is needed in order to be bound by the UN agreement's rules.

Samoa's move brings to forty the number of states which have ratified and fifty are needed before the treaty comes into force.

Ema Tagicakibau of the Pacific Small Arms Action Group says Samoa should be congratulated.

EMA TAGICAKIBAU: Samoa has really presented itself as a role model for Pacific Island nations because the small islands are in danger of being used as transhipment points or transit points for the movement of arms in the region, given our porous borders, maritime borders. I really congratulate Samoa for taking this giant step for the rest of the Pacific. And I hope that the rest of the Pacific Island nations would follow suit.

SALLY ROUND: How close are other Pacific Island countries to doing the same?

ET: It will involve a lot of political will and it's about doing the right thing and it's about understanding they have a role to play in terms of the security and the development of the region. It'll be up to the NGOs in the region also that have been working with the governments to make sure that (governments) also ratify the treaty.

SR: But do you think that the other Pacific Island countries that haven't signed or ratified yet, do you think they're taking this issue seriously enough?

ET: I think we really need to impress upon them ... some of them seem to think 'oh, that's about the trade in arms, that's for the big countries that are exporting'. I think they fail to realise if they don't standardise their laws and legislation to come up to par with the Arms Trade Treaty then there's a danger that we will become vulnerable to unscrupulous arms dealers that can exploit the gaps in our legislation.

SR: What have you seen recently in the region that makes you feel this should be something that Pacific Island governments need to be putting on the front burner?

ET: Given the armed conflicts we've witnessed in the Pacific, in the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Bougainville, Papua New Guinea, we find that we don't need a lot of arms to be able to destabilise governments and to overthrow democratically elected governments. It's just the flow of arms to unscrupulous or to illegitimate users for criminal purposes. The Arms Trade Treaty has provisions on how these arms need to be maintained - they will not be sold to those countries or to groups that are in danger of misusing these arms for human rights violations. These are provisions that are provided for in the Arms Trade Treaty and that is why it is important for Pacific nations to have a standard that they can rise up to.