Angolan Disarmament Commission visits Brazil

Its past marked by a number of wars, among them a civil war that lasted for 27 years, Angola is now going through a period of growing political stability, attracting immigration from African neighbors. The portuguese speaking nation, rich in Petroleum, has recently embarked on a “Campaign for the Disarmament of the Civilian Population”, as its gun collection drive is entitled, launched April last year, and effective until 2010.

Four members of the technical team of Angola's Disarmament Commission (Commission for the Disarmament of the Civil Population, in full) visited Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in January, with the goal of begining a colaboration in the field of firearms control. Head of the technical team, and Sub Commander of the Angolan National Police, Paulo de Almeida, commented on the outreach of the Angolan disarmament campaign:

“We have had great impact, we collected over 52 thousand firearms, just through this campaign. This does not mean only these weapons were collected. Firearms collection has been underway as a campaign for a number of years, but it had not been planned in a structured manner. According to our data, taking into account firearms collections over the past few years, we have collected over 250 thousand weapons.”

Daniel Luz, head of the Human Security Program of the Brazilian civil society organization Viva Rio, received the technical team in Rio de Janeiro:

“Initially we imagined that Angola looked at gun control as reflecting post-conflict concerns. It was a postive surprise to see that Angola is now looking at gun control from the perspective of public security and violence prevention.”

Angola: a historically high ratio of weapons per combattants

The Angolan government still does not have an estimate of the overall number of weapons in the country, since, according to Luz, a gun control researcher, the Angolan war of independence, the invasions and the civil war all meant a large influx or weapons into the nation.

“All the parties involved in these various conflicts were rich with economic resources. In your typical African conflict, you would have a 0.5 ratio of guns per combattants, but in Angola the ratio was of 2.5 weapons per combattant.” The Angolan Disarmament Commission however, notes that a great many of these weapons have already made their way out of the nation, crossing the border to enter other African conflicts, among them conflicts in the Congo, Nigeria and Liberia.

“We do not have a definitive number for the firearms that are, or have in the past been, in civilian hands. They have been arming themselves since the 1950's. There have been wars of liberation, wars of aggression and the civil war. All parties involved armed themselves and their militias. It is hard to know how many firearms had been distributed. We are now conducting a study at the Centro de Estudos Estrategicos (Angola's Center for Strategic Studies) so that we can have an idea of how many weapons are in civilian hands,” said the head of the visiting technical team, Police Subcommander Almeida.

The gun collection campaign in Angola includes various sectors of the Angolan government. The Disarmament Commisson includes members of 14 different Ministries, among them the Ministry of Education, Health and Communication. The DC is headed by the Minister of the Interior, also head of police. In the past firearms collection was carried out by the Angolan army, in the current campaign, the army is responsible solely for weapons destruction.

Low rate of reported homicides, security attracts immigrants

The first stage of the DC campaign focused on raising the awareness of the population. This stage carries on along with two other stages launched in succession: the voluntary gun hand in, that lasted for two months, and the current one that includes forced apprehension for those Angolan citizens unlawfully carrying a weapon.

The first stage of the campaign included holding seminars to train personnel, disseminating information, defining a gun control and registration process and structuring the campaign itself.

The voluntary gun hand in campaign includes civilian participation. Angolan citizens were told to hand in their guns at police stations, churches, traditional authorities and civil society organizations.

“We are currently in the phase we call “control”. We are looking at results, at gun registration. There are still a number of actions underway, such as personnel training, computerizing the system, creating a database, writing bills or revising of parts of our legislation that, inherited from colonial times, and may be inappropriate for our current issues. This last stage means all the previous ones are taking place at the same time. And, of course, we need to develop process management,” said Almeida.

The Angolan homicide rate is low, according to police figures there are 3 homicides per month for the entire country. “If we think that the size of the population is comparable to the Brazil's state of Rio de Janeiro, with a homicide rate of 15 a day, their rate is surprising for a post-conflict nation. Even if the data is only estimated, it is still telling,” said Daniel Luz.

Still according to Luz, the Angolan government is concerned with violence prevention in a nation that is receiving a large influx of immigrants from other African nations. “Their concern in carrying out the gun collection campaign is to prevent new outbreaks of violence,” said Luz.

As Angola enjoys a period of stability and economic growth it has also become attractive to immigrants who, faced with increased restrictions in Europe and insecurity in South Africa, turn to their prosperous neighbor.

“It is interesting that the Angolan government predicts that immigration rates will rise, and are already concerned that public security problems may also grow. They want a gun control system that works. For that, they want to change the law, prepare police officers to participate in gun control more effectively, so that they know how to control and trace weapons,” said Luz.

The Commission came to Brazil in search of knowhow on weapons tracing and gun control. It also looked into police training and civilian participation in disarmament campaigns.