OSCE document tackles risks from ammunition

Huge risks through ammunition

The disarmament process and the legacy of conflicts have resulted in the presence of huge amounts of ammunition and explosives in the OSCE region, which do not correspond at all with the decreasing number of weapons.

Taking into account the risk posed by these stockpiles, and the liability of some of them to illicit diversion and uncontrolled spread especially to terrorist and criminal groups, the OSCE foreign ministers decided in Porto in December 2002 that the Organization should analyze the problem and set up a mechanism to deal with it.

The document provides practical procedures and mechanisms for the destruction of these surplus stockpiles. The final goal is to enable participating States to strengthen their national capacities so they can deal with specific problems on their own, building wherever possible on their own assets.

Voluntary, transparent, and complementary measures

The new procedures and mechanisms include specific security measures, which will be voluntary, transparent, complementary and sustainable.

Voluntary measures include principles which stipulate that:

• each participating State is responsible for its own stockpiles of conventional ammunition as well as identification and reduction of corresponding surpluses. Indicators of surplus and risk are provided by the new document to help them identify problems and related needs;
• given the enormity of some of the problems encountered in the OSCE region, some participating States, although willing, are not able to cope with them alone. The document provides a framework whereby participating States can, on a voluntary basis, request assistance from the international community;
• participating States or other international organizations or institutions interested in assisting will be able to do so through a voluntary funding mechanism.

The document also outlines principles of transparency, which means that participating States requiring assistance will provide all relevant information on stockpiles for which they need assistance. This measure will enhance the overall level of awareness of the issue.

Finally, the complementary measures mean that while there are a number of international actors in the field of destruction of ammunition, the magnitude of the problem and the absence of a global framework to deal with it means that there are some well known difficulties in matching requests for assistance with offers of help.

One of the aims of the document is also to allow the OSCE to act as a clearing house, bringing together requesting States, potential assisting and donor states and other international actors.