A Mozambican NGO has managed to collect more than 800 000 weapons used in the country’s 16-year civil war, Vista News reported on Tuesday.
This was revealed by the head of the Mozambican Christian Council’s Transforming Swords into Ploughshares (TAE) project, Bishop Dinis Sengulane, in a report published by Radio Mozambique.
He said, however, that despite these numbers the organisation was still concerned about the existence of arms in the hands of criminals in the country, 15 years after the armed conflict.
Since the project’s establishment in 1995, Sengulane said more than 800 000 weapons were collected in exchange for different tools and equipment.
In exchange for the weapons, most people were given sewing machines, bicycles and building materials. One village received a tractor for collecting 500 weapons.
The project was launched as a way of promoting peace in the country that was plunged into 16 years of civil war on the eve of independence from Portugal in 1975.
Weapons collected under the project were destroyed or disabled and given to Mozambican artists, who turned them into sculptures that were exhibited to promote TAE.
TAE exhibitions were held in Mozambique, Portugal, Germany, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Belgium, Sweden, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and Italy.
According to the Small Arms Survey 2006 titled ”Unfinished Business”, militaries around the world procure more than one million small arms and light weapons annually and then sell their surplus stockpiles to underdeveloped countries.
The Small Arms Survey is an independent research project at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland.
The TAE project was officially launched with the support of the religious, political and diplomatic communities, as well as national and international NGOs.
Some analysts believe some of the weapons that were used during the civil war in Mozambique were being circulated around the Southern African region by crime syndicates. — Sapa