07 September 2006

United States Helping Angola Destroy Surplus Small Arms

New photo essay highlights weapons removal efforts in embattled region

 

An Angolan employee of The HALO Trust places the muzzle of an AK-47 assault rifle in a shielded tube. (Dept. of State photo)

Washington – A newly released State Department photo essay highlights U.S. support for Angola’s efforts to deal with more than 2 million excess small arms and light weapons that accumulated there during nearly 30 years of civil war.

The images document a June project sponsored by State’s Office Of Weapons Removal and Abatement to convert 1,577 light weapons into scrap metal and safely dispose of more than 800 pieces of unexploded and abandoned land mines and artillery shells.

The proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons in regions of the world suffering from political instability and violent conflict has proven a major obstacle to peace, economic development and efforts to rebuild war-torn societies.  In places like Afghanistan, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Sudan and Colombia, thousands of civilians have been killed and tens of thousands more displaced by ethnic and civil conflicts perpetuated in large part by easy access to illicit weaponry.  (See related article.)

 

An AK-47 assault rifle (top) cut into pieces by mechanical shears, now ready to be melted into scrap metal. (Dept. of State photo)

In Huambo, Angola, the State Department awarded a $447,000 grant to the HALO Trust, a British nongovernmental organization that specializes in armaments removal, which worked with Angolan authorities to collect, record and finally destroy the weapons using a massive shredding machine, converting them into scrap metal that can be used for peaceful purposes.  The Netherlands and the United Kingdom are pursuing similar projects in Angola, according to the State Department.

Worldwide, the United States has provided more than $27.5 million to destroy approximately 900,000 small arms and light weapons and more than 80 million pieces of ammunition in 25 countries, a record of assistance unmatched by any other nation. (See related article.)

The United States is one of approximately 22 countries that help states to better secure or destroy small arms and light weapons, preventing their use in regional conflicts, terrorist attacks or their entry into international illicit arms trafficking networks.

The photo essay is available on the State Department Web site.

For more information, see Arms Control and Non-Proliferation and Africa.

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)