Weapons Collection in Post-Conflict Situations: Collection of Small Arms After the April and June 2010 Events in Kyrgyzstan

Abstract

The given MA thesis research paper gives a review of the issue of SALW in the world and presents the June 2010 inter-ethnic conflict in Kyrgyzstan, where the usage of seized weapons from government stockpiles was used. The major goal of this research was to present an overall picture of the small arms as an issue of global concern as well as give a brief review of weapons collection methods from other countries for the weapons collection efforts also took place in Kyrgyzstan and were partially successful. A specific emphasis is put on weapons collection using the cash for guns method, for it was used in Kyrgyzstan and in many other parts of the world, and still this method is considered to be controversial in terms of its effectiveness. In some country cases, this was a convenient and successful method, whereas other countries did not achieve significant results when referring to it. The overall conclusions from the usage of cash for guns method were that the success of the weapons collection depends on a number of factors upon which the society is willing to cooperate and take part in weapons collection programs. And the success of each case depends on each country individually. Specifically as for Kyrgyzstan, the issue of weapons collection after the June 2010 event is not the issue of primary concern for the number of looted weapons still present in the society is not that high and the society is not a gun-friendly culture. Nevertheless, the fact of the easy access to the government stockpiles and the ability of ordinary people to seize weapons should urgently be addressed.