KIGALI — Rwanda is among the pioneer countries of central Africa to have signed and respected the International Treaty on Small Arms Trafficking, according to the Deputy Commissioner General of Police, Mary Gahonzire. She made the remarks during a two-day meeting aimed at reviewing the progress in controlling the trafficking of small arms. The treaty was signed in 2000 and was implemented in August 2003. Gahonzire said that 6,000 guns and over 1,000 bullets were... (GunPolicy.org)

KAMPALA-KIGALI — Uganda and Rwanda have denied statements contained in a report issued on Wednesday by the UN Security Council that the two countries had delayed to give information to officials monitoring arms sanctions in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). "We have not delayed anything," Uganda's foreign minister, Sam Kuteesa told IRIN on Thursday. "What we have done is to give them information whenever they ask for it." The main concern of the report by... (GunPolicy.org)

KIGALI — Rwanda has, for the first time, destroyed 6,000 small arms as part of a regional initiative to check the flow of illicit guns that have fuelled conflict in Africa's Great Lakes region, an official told IRIN on Thursday. "We set them on fire," Maj Rwakabi Kakira, the coordinator of the Rwandan effort, said. The guns ranging from 5.2 mm to 82 mm in calibre and ammunition were taken from former combatants and armed robbers. Others were part of an obsolete... (GunPolicy.org)

KAMPALA — Nelson Mandela's government is moving to stop arms sale to Uganda, Rwanda and other countries involved in armed conflicts in the region. The chairman of the Pretoria based National Conventional Arms Control Committee (NCACC) Kader Asmal said said the South African government has decided to destroy all surplus small arms rather than sell them. Kabila's Congo, Zimbabwe and Angola, fighting rebels who enjoy sympathy from Uganda and Rwanda will also not receive... (GunPolicy.org)

British companies helped to arm the Rwandan Hutu militia who butchered four British tourists in Uganda last week, The Observer can reveal. The companies — air freight specialists — were involved in arms drops in central Africa in 1994 and 1995, at the height of the civil war in Rwanda. The weapons found their way to the Interahamwe Hutu militia. The companies arranged for arms to be flown from eastern Europe and Israel to Goma in Zaire. From there they were shipped... (GunPolicy.org)