BONN INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR CONVERSION B I C C BONN INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR CONVERSION • INTERNATIONALES KONVERSIONSZENTRUM BONN brief 29 Exchanging Guns for Tools The TAE Approach to Practical Disarmament–—An Assessment of the TAE Project in Mozambique Contents The authors Sami Faltas is a program director in charge of the Training Acknowledgements 4 and Education on Small Arms (TRESA) project at BICC. Preface 5 Wolf-Christian Paes is a project Introduction 7 leader at BICC. His fields of History 8 research include small arms control and in particular weapons Assessing the Scope of the Problem 10 collection, as well as the role of economic actors in armed Aims and Objectives of the TAE Project 14 conflict. Output and Impact 16 Weapons Collection and destruction 16 Provision of Tools and Other Incentives 17 Figure: Collection Results of TAE Project from 20 October 1995 until 14 October 2003 18 Civic Education 19 Guns into Art 21 Resources Available to the Project 22 Mode of Operation 25 Information Retrieval 25 Provision of Incentives 26 Storage and Destruction 28 Government and Civil Society 30 Costs and Benefits 31 Lessons Learned and Replication 33 Motivation of Gun-Holders 33 Program Goals 34 Cover photo: Government Relations 34 WORLD VISION Germany Provision of Incentives 35 Translation: Bibliography 37 Jamil Chade BONN INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR CONVERSION B I C C BONN INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR CONVERSION • INTERNATIONALES KONVERSIONSZENTRUM BONN brief 29 Exchanging Guns for Tools The TAE Approach to Practical Disarmament–—An Assessment of the TAE Project in Mozambique Sami Faltas and Wolf-Christian Paes brief 29 Acknowledgements his study was commissioned authors. Noel Stott at the Institute main findings of this report were Tby WORLD VISION Germany for Security Studies (ISS) in discussed during a stakeholders’ and carried out by the Bonn Pretoria provided valuable insights workshop in June 2003 in Maputo, International Center for into Operation Rachel and Mozambique and the authors Conversion (BICC) in close authored the box on that subject would like to thank all participants cooperation with the TAE project in this report, while Christian Brun for their time and input. While in Maputo, Mozambique. The contributed the box on “Arts in many people have contributed to authors would like to thank all the Crossfire”. Frank Tester of the this report, the responsibility for current and former staff of TAE for University of British Columbia the content lies entirely with the their willingness to provide shared some of the results of his authors. insights into their work, simultaneous evaluation on behalf particularly TAE project manager of CUSO. Scott Lewis, research Bonn, April 2004 Albino Forquilha, as well as CUSO associate at BICC, assisted with the Bonn International Center for volunteers Kayo Takenoshita and editing of this report. The authors Conversion Christian Brun, who have by now are grateful to WORLD VISION left the project. Kayo was Germany and feel particularly Sami Faltas and instrumental in organizing the field indebted to Ekkehard Forberg for Wolf-Christian Paes research undertaken by the making this research possible. The 4 B·I·C·C preface Preface eapons are hazardous. Not usually cumbersome and the very first time, civil society is Wjust in the hands of robbers protracted. That leads to taking responsibility for the and rebels, but in and of disappointments and to an population’s disarmament at a themselves: The more of them increase of crime and armed self- national level, thereby making an exist and the easier they can be protection: a vicious circle of essential contribution towards accessed, the more probable their violence threatens to plunge such peace and reconciliation. During lethal use. Hence, the a post-war society into chaos once Mozambique’s civil war, millions disarmament of post-conflict again. That’s why there is no of automatic weapons were societies constitutes one of the reasonable alternative to a distributed all over the country vital challenges that need to be systematic disarmament of and amongst the people. Now the addressed, once combat has combatants and armed civilians. Christian Council of Mozambique ended. is collecting at least part of those The ‘Tools for Arms’ approach in weapons and destroying them on In post-war societies, weapons can Mozambique is a case in point the spot. Some weapons parts are fulfil a multiplicity of functions: and a spearheading example: For then modeled into works of art, ■ Although kept for defense, weapons promise only a false kind of security. All too often, accidents occur at home because weapons or ammunition are not properly stored. ■ As long as a country’s infrastructure and economy lie in ruins, a weapon can offer the basis for a family’s survival. The owner of a gun can secure an income if recruited by a private security service or a new army or if hired to protect a drove of cattle. ■ A weapon constitutes an object of value and a nest egg for times of want. Besides their material value, weapons also have their ideological appeal and their ‘aura of power’. Former combatants are known to only reluctantly relinquish their ‘companion’ of many years. For people who have lost everything during a war and who have been uprooted from their kin and native villages, a weapon sometimes offers the only prospect for securing a modest income, be it legal or illegal. At the same time, people’s hopes and expectations for a rapid reconstruction and economic renewal of their country are often thwarted, for these processes take time and are Pieces of art made from destroyed weapons B·I·C·C 5 brief 29 demonstrating to the people that Mozambique, people who hand in In post-war societies, civil actors such killing devices are no longer their guns during the project and non-governmental needed. period need not fear prosecution. organizations (NGO) can indeed It cannot be overlooked that this No doubt, the project has been fulfil a vital role in conflict civil disarmament must be able to learn from the experiences resolution and peace building. In attributed to the courageous of previous—often failed— Mozambique, Church leaders and commitment of individual civil disarmament projects. So-called NGOs are living up to the leaders. One of them is Bishop ‘buy back’ programs in which challenge. However, there is yet Sengulane, who has been a major weapons were bought back at another area in which NGOs can player in Mozambique’s peace their actual market value have in make a contribution: security. In process and also initiated this the past actually boosted the arms this area, though, they still have to project. Mr. Sengulane could build trade of a whole region. In gather and document their on the excellent reputation and Mozambique, useful household experiences. trust which the Christian Council tools are offered instead as of Mozambique had earned incentives for people to hand in This present Report investigates through its role in a successful their weapons, thereby offering the ‘Tools for Arms’ approach in conflict resolution. them new civil income Mozambique and looks into the opportunities. Those consumer general preconditions that lead to His involvement demonstrates why goods given in exchange for arms the project’s success. It also tries civil actors must play their role in —mostly sewing machines and to identify weak areas so other the peace process: They are bicycles—are symbols of a new actors can learn from this neutral with respect to the beginning. The Mozambique experience and apply it to other conflicting parties and the disarmament process is contexts. WORLD VISION and government structures; and they accompanied by training and BICC jointly hope that this have a proximity and easy access awareness programs to prepare documentation will help to the people. Civil actors can also society for a period of peace and encourage other post-war societies find innovative interim solutions to teach people how to resolve to commit themselves more fully without losing their credibility. For future conflicts in a non-violent to the disarmament of their instance, although it is now strictly way. population and to raise awareness prohibited to own a weapon in about the immense risks of small arms. Ekkehard Forberg Coordinator for Conflict Resolution WORLD VISION Germany Weapons being destroyed in a public ceremony in Sofala Province 6 B·I·C·C introduction Introduction he Republic of Mozambique’s dangerous legacies of the literature review and interviews Tcoat of arms has at its center liberation struggle and the civil with experts on SALW proliferation an AK-471 Kalashnikov assault rifle war, namely millions of weapons both inside Mozambique and as a symbol of the people’s and huge amounts of ammunition abroad. The main findings of this struggle against colonial rule, and explosives in the hands of the report were discussed during a which ultimately led to the population. This unusual church- stakeholders’ workshop in country’s independence in 1975. based effort, which will this report cooperation with TAE in June The 1970s and 1980s saw many will discuss, does not actually 2003. violent conflicts in which the convert arms into agricultural Kalashnikov, designed in the USSR implements, though that was the in the 1940s, helped to bring original idea, and Dom Dinis still down colonial rulers and regimes hopes to achieve that one day supported by the West in Angola, (Sengulane Interview). Rather, it Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, collects weapons, ammunition and Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, explosives from the population, Nicaragua, Cambodia and destroys the ordnance, and offers Vietnam. A popular culture of tools and other useful implements revolution evolved around slogans in exchange. like “a luta continua”, the image of Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara and the gun TAE is unusual for being a with the distinctively curved disarmament project entirely run ammunition magazine.