OSCE Centre holds workshop in Ashgabad on combating illicit spread of small arms and light weapons
ASHGABAD, 3 November 2006 - Ways to identify and trace small arms and light weapons, including Man Portable Air Defence System (MANPADS), are being discussed at an OSCE-organized workshop that ends in Ashgabad today.
The two-day event, part of the OSCE Centre in Ashgabad's programme "Promoting confidence and security-building in Central Asia," was organized together with the Turkmenistan Foreign Ministry. The idea to hold a workshop originated from suggestions made by Turkmenistan participants during a 2004 regional workshop on the OSCE Handbook on Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) that took place in Ashgabad.
"Small arms and light weapons are available on the black market to any group or force that is ready to pay. Those weapons are a significant threat because they underpin both terrorism and organized crime," said Ambassador Ibrahim Djikic, Head of the OSCE Centre.
"Of particular concern are portable anti-aircraft systems that might fall into the hands of terrorists and be used against civil aviation."
The event brought together seventeen representatives from Turkmenistan's law enforcement bodies and the Mejlis (Parliament), as well as experts from Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, the United States, and the OSCE Vienna Secretariat's Conflict Prevention Centre and Action Against Terrorism Unit, who shared their experience in preventing the uncontrolled spread of SALW.
Discussions also focused on stockpile security, record-keeping and international co-operation in the tracking of SALW and developing national mechanisms for an effective traceability of these deadly weapons.