The Scope and Implications of a Tracing Mechanism for Small Arms ...

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91 secondary marking is certainly a concept worth developing to enhance the tracing potential. Another aspect being considered involves marking on critical areas of a weapon where any attempt to obliterate the mark will lead to structural failure rendering the weapon inoperable. For example, the Swiss arms manufacturer, SIG, recently introduced laser etching to provide covert secondary marks on their handguns. These include marking the serial number on to the firing pin and a barcode on the extractor. One of the leading marking regimes can be found in South Africa. South African legislation currently requires all firearms to be marked with a combination of make, model, calibre, country of manufacture and serial number to create a readily identifiable unique set of markings clearly stamped on a high-stress metal part of the weapon. Weapons produced for the commercial market (civilian or military export) are then recorded in the Central Firearms Register (CFR), whereas those produced for the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) are held on a separate, independent military database. South African arms manufacturers coordinate with the CFR and SANDF to ensure that markings on newly produced weapons do not duplicate with those already held on the national systems. Where markings on an imported weapon are found to duplicate those already recorded on either the CFR or SANDF databases, the authorities will stamp either a completely new replacement marking or, as is normally the case, prefix the existing serial number with the letters “WR” (“Wapen Register”). Both methods ensure that the marking is internationally unique. However, South Africa is moving towards further improvements with the introduction, on 1 January 2003, of an internationally unique alphanumeric serial number for all new weapons produced, which will be similar to the existing UK Ministry of Defence regime. The advantage of this new approach is that it no longer relies on marking combinations, which in turn overcomes the obvious difficulties of trying to differentiate between the wide varieties of model types produced by manufacturers. The South African arms industry will mark each new weapon with a code indicating, Country of manufacture (in this case ZA), Year of manufacture, and Serial number as follows: ZA 02 234567. This method of unique identification is immediately user-friendly for identification, record-keeping and, consequently, cross-border tracing.
92 3.1.2 Sanitization Removal or obliteration of identifying marks is commonly referred to as “sanitization”. Across the illicit small arms market, sanitization is still not generally widespread. Diversion from legal to illicit market is often a deliberately lengthy and contrived process, sometimes involving “front companies” set up for a one-off transaction, which means that, even though it is still possible to trace and attribute weapons back to the actual point of diversion or source, by the time investigators have traced the weapons back, the individuals concerned have closed their business and moved on. Therefore, sanitization may not always be necessary. In conflict zones worldwide, it is commonplace for weapons to be recycled and to circulate between rival factions criss-crossing borders, which further negates the need to sanitize marks. There are other factors, which can impact on the need to sanitize, and these include, the quantity of weapons involved; whether the weapons are second-hand, and the level of political or commercial damage tracing would have. The latter is a major consideration for State-controlled arms industries (including those in which local politicians have a vested interest) supplying new or surplus ex-military weapons from official government stocks. However, in the criminal handgun market, for example, sanitization occurs more frequently; approximately 20% of illegal handguns recovered in the UK have been sanitized. The diversion process from legal to criminal market is much shorter, often sourced direct from a limited number of dishonest registered firearms dealer. A comparison can be made, though, to small arms where a “rogue State” may sponsor an illicit supply of arms, in which case sanitization will be an important consideration. Intelligence sources suggest that there has been an increase in sanitization commensurate with tracing activities of UN and NATO Forces. It has become a feature of the long-term peacekeeping role of KFOR in Kosovo, for example, to identify the sources of illicit weapons and thus disrupt supplies to disarmed combatants. Illicit traffickers are alive to the threat tracing poses to their activities. Hence, while sanitization is currently not widespread it is likely to grow as traffickers try to counter the increasing emphasis amongst UN, NATO and Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) countries, spurred on by the NGO community, to identify sources of illicit weapons.
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UNIDIR/2002/20 The Scope and Implic
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CONTENTS Page Preface. . . . . . .
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v Chapter 4 Structures and Institut
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viii point of diversion, thus inhib
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ACRONYMS ATFUS BATF BPA CFR CFR CIC
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xiii VIN WFSA WIES WR Vehicle Ident
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2 and lines of supply of illicit SA
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4 First, if a weapon has been invol
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6 The UN Programme of Action includ
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8 1.3 MARKING 1.3.1 Introduction A
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10 uniquely identify each productio
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12 • Ensure, at the time of trans
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14 • increasing the resistance of
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16 The UN Firearms Protocol, in its
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18 component of this project is to
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20 They clarify whether a weapon is
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22 Though such systems have great p
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24 have a more prominent role to pl
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26 That said, national intelligence
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28 training and technical assistanc
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30 This highlights one of the most
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32 An international tracing mechani
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34 Some of the necessary elements a
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36 on sources and lines of supply o
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38 In promoting international assis
Page 53 and 54: 40 3 Programme of Action to Prevent
Page 55 and 56: 42 25 This section draws on discuss
Page 58 and 59: 45 BIBLIOGRAPHY Berkol, Ilhan, Mark
Page 60 and 61: CHAPTER 2 WHAT TO MARK AND WHAT TO
Page 62 and 63: 49 tracing method for all SALW (con
Page 64 and 65: 51 Figure 2: : The different sub-ca
Page 66 and 67: 53 In order to better grasp the pro
Page 68 and 69: 55 SALW include weapons of war, def
Page 70 and 71: 57 The following questions should t
Page 72 and 73: 59 All of this data, while useful f
Page 74 and 75: 61 2.5 WHAT ARE THE CRITERIA FOR IN
Page 76 and 77: 63 traced, but which ones? Precisel
Page 78 and 79: 65 Table 1: Firearms recovered in c
Page 80 and 81: 67 explosives belts and dozens of t
Page 82 and 83: 69 This data provides an interestin
Page 84 and 85: 71 weapons belonging to illicit cir
Page 86 and 87: 73 imagine being able to effectivel
Page 88 and 89: 75 case of Switzerland, it would be
Page 90 and 91: 77 electronics in animal identifica
Page 92 and 93: 79 based our reflection on goals fo
Page 94 and 95: 81 10 Small Arms Survey, Annuaire s
Page 96 and 97: APPENDIX 1 83
Page 98 and 99: APPENDIX 3 85
Page 100: 87 the army weapon is capable of au
Page 103: 90 significance, hence in general t
Page 107 and 108: 94 Chinese Type 56-1 Unique Identif
Page 109 and 110: 96 verify that the imported weapons
Page 111 and 112: 98 weapons. There are risks involve
Page 113 and 114: 100 China Type 56 Russia AK47 Russi
Page 115 and 116: 102 channels, with the protection o
Page 117 and 118: 104 3.1.9 Comments Countries seekin
Page 119 and 120: 106 as a result, potentially tip-of
Page 121 and 122: 108 2. All markings must be made pe
Page 123 and 124: 110 shared encryption standard. The
Page 125 and 126: 112 Domestic record-keeping varies
Page 127 and 128: 114 Nevertheless, whilst the Wassen
Page 129 and 130: 116 individual weapon, should as a
Page 131 and 132: 118 • “Consolidation”—4 x 2
Page 133 and 134: 120 With the scope of the Protocol
Page 135 and 136: 122 The South African authorities a
Page 137 and 138: 124 • (Tracing) Details of all st
Page 139 and 140: 126 tracing Chinese weapons. Conseq
Page 141 and 142: 128 circulating information by fax
Page 143 and 144: 130 Tracing requests are normally c
Page 145 and 146: 132 encourage countries along the t
Page 147 and 148: 134 close enough to provide adequat
Page 149 and 150: 136 3. If Interpol is not up to the
Page 151 and 152: 138 which restrict the amount of in
Page 153 and 154: 140 9 It was notable during negotia
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142
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144 There are other reasons as well
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146 Laws Firearms are a durable com
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148 This last point should not be u
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150 the future a firearm tracing qu
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152 There are several important ele
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154 Canada, nearly all transfers re
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156 accuracy and man-hour effective
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158 industry practices. An effectiv
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160
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162 manner in national (and possibl
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164 routine stockpile management. A
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166 International regulations on th
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168 2. The definitions of weapons,
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170 enable national authorities to
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172 serial number of the firearm. T
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174 9. Explosives: the recommendati
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176 • The States parties undertak
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178 • The following is establishe
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180 International regulations on th
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182 • The participating States ag
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184 The Convention on Plastic Explo
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186 5.3.1 European Joint Action The
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188 years in July 2001. In December
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190 • States must make efforts to
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192 a greater degree of harmonizati
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194 this may lead to the undesirabl
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196 28 Or at least difficult or imp
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198 49 Speech by Mr. Koffi Adjouman
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200 in its capacity as President of
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202 Table 1: Scope of the Seven Pri
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204 Table 1 (continued) Characteris
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206 Characteristics of the marking
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208 Characteristics of the marking
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210 Characteristics of the recordke
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212 Characteristics of the record-k
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214 Table 4: Comparison of the Stan
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216 Characteristics of the exchange
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218
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