WASHINGTON - Tens of thousands of children are destroying toy guns in Argentina this week as part of a campaign to press politicians and other adults to support national and international efforts to control and reduce the multinational trade in small arms.

The "Week Against Guns" is sponsored by organizations affiliated to the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), a coalition of some 500 NGOs worldwide working to stop the proliferation and misuse of small arms and light weapons. It will also feature public destruction of guns and ammunition seized by police in crime-related incidents.

Argentine government and a number of businesses and business associations--including the national airline, Aerolineas Argentinas--are also supporting the campaign in which a total of 400,000 school children are taking part. The week's events are designed to educate children on the dangers posed by guns as well as national, regional and international efforts to reduce their availability.

Though Argentina has long been considered one of Latin America's safest countries, the collapse of the economy over the last few years has contributed to growing crime wave. With gun laws that are among the least restrictive in Latin America, "every criminal now has a gun," Daniel Rodriguez, chief spokesman for Argentina's federal police, told The Christian Science Monitor earlier this year.

Over 20,000 armed robberies were reported last year in Buenos Aires alone. In the first three weeks of this year, 33 police officers have been killed in shoot-outs in the capital. The state of insecurity has spurred a run on guns; retailers reported a 50 percent rise in sales last year.

A rash of kidnappings has also plagued the country. Marta Canillas, a featured speaker at one of the events marking the week--and an activist with IANSA affiliate group Red Solidaria--said 1,000 fewer guns would mean 1,000 fewer deaths. Ms Canillas' 23 year-old son, Juan Manuel, was kidnapped and murdered last July.

"If we can prevent even one death, that is worth doing, and I can never stop thinking about how that single life saved could have been my son's," she added.

Argentina has also attracted arms traffickers. Fundacion Espacios, one of the key sponsors of this week's event, recently helped to expose the sale of Argentine military weapons to criminal gangs in Brazil.

In the early 1990s, arms were shipped illegally through Argentina to Croatia--which was then under a UN arms embargo--and to Ecuador. Exposure of the latter case was particularly embarrassing due to Argentina's role at the time as a mediator in a territorial dispute between Peru and Ecuador. The president at the time, Carlos Saul Menem, was placed under house arrest in 2001 in connection with an investigation of both transfers, but the charges against him were dropped.

The United Nations has become increasingly concerned about the transfer of small arms in recent years, particularly because their effectiveness and cost help fuel wars and violent conflicts in many poor countries. The trade in small arms has skyrocketed due to reductions in the size of conventional military forces--especially in Central and Eastern Europe--as well as growing trade between nations.

But the havoc caused by small arms is hardly limited to wars. The world body has estimated that there are currently more than 500 million small arms in the world, and at least half a million people are killed in violent incidents each year--most of them in developing countries.

"The influx of guns to neighborhoods and communities that are already suffering from crime and poverty give rise to warlike violence, greatly increasing deaths and injuries," said Rebecca Peters, IANSA's director.

At this week's NATO summit in Prague, IANSA organizations are urging NATO leaders to put pressure on new members and candidate-members to strengthen controls on their arms export.

In July 2001, more than 140 UN member states signed a voluntary agreement to require arms manufacturers to compile records of their small arms sales and mark them so that they can be traced. It also urged governments to enact new laws regulating arms brokers and to destroy surplus stocks.

© 2005 One World US

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