Small Arms Survey 2007 - Guns and the city

Enemy Within: Ammunition Diversion in Uganda and Brazil

In October 2006 warriors in the Karamoja region of northern Uganda shot dead 16 Ugandan soldiers who were conducting forcible disarmament operations in the region (New Vision, 2006). The findings in this chapter suggest that some of those soldiers may have been killed by bullets that were destined for their own use. In Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 52 police officers were killed on duty in 2004 (AI, 2005). The evidence presented in this study indicates that some of them may have been killed by bullets originally issued to their own forces.

Ammunition has recently gained prominence on the international agenda. This chapter investigates the mechanics of its proliferation at the local level in Karamoja and Rio de Janeiro. Most notably, it looks at the problem of ammunition diversion from the stocks of state security forces to non-state actors.1 Karamoja is home to several pastoralist groups whose warring and cattle raiding have escalated in recent years with the proliferation of modern assault rifles. The study finds that ammunition that should have been manufactured exclusively for state security forces is in the hands of Karimojong warriors.

Brazil is a well-documented example of very high small arms-related crime and homicide rates. The intricacies of the ammunition trade that fuels this dynamic are less-well documented. The study finds that a significant quantity of ammunition seized by the police from criminals is of the same type used by the police of Rio de Janeiro.

Findings in the studies presented in this chapter were generated by taking samples of ammunition from non-state actors. Importantly, the two studies use slightly different data collection and analysis methods. In the Karamoja case, a Small Arms Survey researcher collected ammunition directly from the private stocks of warriors in the region.2 This data was then compared with data about ammunition stocks of state security forces, which was recorded in the same way. In Rio de Janeiro, police had seized the ammunition from criminals.

In both cases, a selection of the sampled ammunition was compared with trends in security force ammunition of the same calibre and origin. Each study uses the markings on individual rounds of ammunition to determine the year of manufacture and the factory in which the ammunition was produced. The data on this ‘headstamp’ is then used to create profiles of the ammunition in the hands of various groups of actors and to compare among them. The results of these analyses are then reviewed in light of qualitative research findings, including field research, interviews, government documents, and press reports.

In Karamoja and Rio de Janeiro, the similarity between state and non-state stocks of assault rifle ammunition suggests that cross-border traffic of this type of ammunition may not be the main conduit for illicit trade. The specific findings of the chapter are as follows:

- In Karamoja and Rio de Janeiro, non-state actors possess ammunition that is produced almost exclusively for the state security forces of each country.

- In both cases, these types of ammunition in the hands of non-state actors correspond in volume and origin to types used by state security forces.

- In each case study, state and non-state actors exhibit very ‘young’ stocks of ammunition, suggesting a short chain of supply.

- Other sources of information corroborate the findings from the ammunition data.

These sources include reports of diversion and other evidence of trade between state and non-state groups. The chapter concludes that the ammunition-tracing methodologies presented here are vital research tools for understanding illicit flows of ammunition.

The cases of Karamoja and Rio de Janeiro re-emphasize the role of state security forces in the acquisition of ammunition by non-state armed groups. There is a clear need to address this problem if the forces that are employed to curtail armed violence are not to contribute to it.

1 The term ‘state security forces’ is used in this chapter to denote state-controlled armed forces and law enforcement forces.

2 The researcher was James Bevan, who also conducted all the interviews in Karamoja.

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