DHAKA: Foreign Minister Abul Hassan Mahmood Ali on Wednesday said Bangladesh had lived in dark days during last tenure of BNP-Jamaat government.

The minister was addressing the inaugural session of the “Workshop on Capacity Building for the UN Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons and the Arms Trade Treaty” at UNCLOS Conference Room in foreign affairs ministry in city.

Citing Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina-led government’s ‘zero tolerance’ in preventing the expansion of small arms and illegal weapons, Mahmood Ali said, “In 2004, two events shook our nation. On April 01, we received the news of recovery of huge cache of arms and ammunition from ten trucks while those were being unloaded at the jetty of Chittagong Urea Fertilizer Limited (CUFL).”

“Then a few months later, on August 21, there was the fatal grenade attack at Bangladesh Awami League rally in Bangabandhu Avenue targeting our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the then Leader of the Opposition. The attack killed 22 of our leaders and activists, including Ivy Rahman, president of Bangladesh Women’s League and wife of late President Mohammed Zillur Rahman.”

“Both events were followed by systematic denial and farcical investigations held by the government of the day,” said the minister.

Mahmood Ali went on saying, “The masterminds and perpetrators behind those cowardly acts have now been brought to justice. Government remains committed that there will be no recurrence of such incidents under our watch.”

“Even then, the forces that were active at the time still remain on the look out for every possible opportunity to strike. We have seen clear manifestation of that during their indiscriminate acts of terror and violence during the last two years. As a sign of their cruel ingenuity, they have now added petrol bombs and Molotov cocktails in their arsenal,” he added.

The minister put emphasis on staying “vigilant about the illicit transfer and proliferation of small arms, light weapons and related ammunition inside and through” Bangladesh territory and not to use Bangladesh as a “possible conduit or sanctuary for the billion dollar international trade in illicit arms and ammunition with the growing involvement of non-state actors”.

The minister said that government has “an integral element of zero tolerance approach to terrorism and violent extremism in all forms and manifestations.”

Despite decisive strides, the country witnesses the growing use of small arms in criminal activities. Around 11 to 15 percent of crimes committed in Bangladesh involve the use of small arms.

The minister further said, “Most illicit arms trace their origin as legally traded weapons. It is therefore crucial that we plug any possible gaps in our national arms control and regulatory mechanism.”

“While our defense and security establishments have been able to develop fairly sound stockpile management and record keeping systems, we need to consider if we have been able to muster the capabilities for keeping ahead of the rapid changes taking place in the configuration, manufacture and use of small arms and ammunition.”

“We must also take stock of our capacity to comply with the provisions of the UN Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) and the International Tracing Instrument, especially with regard to preventing the slippage of legally traded arms into the illicit channel,” he added.

As the first south Asian signatory to the Arms Trade Treaty, Bangladesh, the minister said, they should “consider making the necessary investments in developing an enabling legal regime and acquiring state-of-the-art arms marking and tracing technologies to enable us to consider eventual accession to the instrument.”

“This would be relevant in view of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s recent announcement to further strengthen our local capacity to manufacture arms and ammunition considered essential for our national security”, he added.

The minister further said that these “legitimate aspirations to expand and diversify our defense capabilities should be matched by our readiness to assume enhanced responsibilities in conformity with the relevant international norms and standards.”

“The investments we make in our national security interest are also likely to prove useful in the regional and international contexts, as evident from our lead contribution to UN peacekeeping operations,” he added.

Detailing objectives of the workshop, Mahmood Ali said, “This two-day workshop would help us move closer to achieving three factors main objectives; (1) to refresh our knowledge base about the obligations we have under the UN Programme of Action as well as the Arms Trade Treaty; (2) to identify the gaps we may have in our existing legal and regulatory regime, and also the technology divide that limits our capacity to fully comply with our international obligations compared to other advanced settings; (3) to appreciate the international cooperation mechanisms that may be leveraged to meaningfully address any gaps and weak links that we may identify through this process.”
 
The minister thanked the UN Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament (UNRCPD) for partnering with the foreign ministry in organizing the two-day workshop.

United Nations Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh Robert D Watkins and UN Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament in Asia and the Pacific director Dr Yuriy Kryvonos, among others, were present at the function.

BDST: 1640 HRS, JUN 17, 2015
HB/RS/RR