Illegal Arms Market in Southern Asia: The demand and supply networks

Small and light weapons (SLAW) are commonly used because they not only are cheap and light, but also easy to carry around and transport. These characteristics have enabled the covert movement of the arms across the borders, often facilitated by the state officials. This demand and easy transportation have made the accessibility of SLAW very easy which has led to creation of the illegal arms market.

The unregulated flow and trade of illegal arms has and continues to have a significant impact on the peace and stability on the across the globe; and South Asian countries are not out of the loop. More so, in the last decade the Southern countries have seen a dramatic rise in the markets of such illegal weapons which have contributed the increasing violence and instability across the region. However, the growth of these illegal markets is not a new phenomenon, but has been happening from 80 years.

With the end of the Cold War, the rivalry between the two superpowers came with USA emerging as the hegemon, but the proxy wars during the Cold War either fuelled the existing inter-state and intra-state wars or created new conflicts, mostly on religious or ethnic lines. These conflicts frequently translated into wars and often included unusual violence and brutality. Most of these wars were not fought by the regular army fighting, but had civilians and militia (often formed from the civilian rebel groups) on the battlegrounds. Militias and citizens needed to be armed and this created a huge demand for the weapons. This process led to uncontrolled proliferation of small arms and light weapons (SLAW), which was often facilitated by the state government or the opposition groups. The demand from such weapons over the years has increased and this has in turn, created a huge arms market which is illegal in nature. These market over the years have expanded, even after the heavy crackdowns from the national governments, regional and international organisations.

One of the proxy wars of Cold War was fought in Afghanistan. Afghanistan, since then, has been a battle ground for many great powers, non-state actors, separatists, drug cartels and crime syndicates. An array of armed actors in Afghanistan, from insurgents to the pro-government militias, or even the local people trying to defend their families and homes, it is estimated that most of them acquire their weapons from the Guruko, between the Afghan province of Nangargar and Pakistan province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwah. Guruko is a lawless area where literally everything is illegal sold or re-sold dependent on your need - marijuana, hard drugs and other narcotics, old air conditioners and electronic items, but weapons and base chemicals for making homemade explosives are the highest sold items there. According to the interviews taken by the Franz J Marty, a famous journalistic who has been living and covering news from Afghanistan, most of these arms are imported in the Afghanistan at night where the government forces do not have permanent presence. Most of these posts along the border are manned by the Taliban who facilitated the arms imports in the country from big and small suppliers.

Another Disneyland for the gun lovers in Afghanistan is 150-year-old Darra Adam Khel Arms Market in Pakistan. Known as Gun Valley and famous for the copies of American and Russian guns and rifles, this market has many specialists who sell copies of weapons which are as good as the originals. This market is located near the Afghan border and is responsible for the maximum of the arms in Afghanistan. Pakistan has imposed strict gun control laws which have brought the sales down, but the market still thrives. While the law and order are bad for business in this illegal market, Pakistan knows the value of the weapon business as it has earned significantly via it.

Pakistan has played an important role in feeding into the illegal arms trade across the region because of its thriving markets. During the Cold War, Americans set up major arms pipelines through Pakistan to arm the Mujahideen rebels with firearms to fight the Soviet Army. At one point, Washington allocated around $8 million to supply the light arms to Afghanistan. Most of these arms never made back to the front line, due to the Pakistan's ISA department who controlled and monitored the pipeline. The frontier regions of Darra Adam, Peshawar and Sakahot Malakand constitute as retail hubs for the proliferation of the weapons.

Given the geographical proximity and the existence of several insurgent and rebel groups and terrorist organisations, South East Asia has provided a logical market place for many of these weapons. Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar have emerged as logical market place for many of such weapons. Cambodia has emerged as one of the important sources which has led to the spread of the illicit arms and weapons. The state's strategic location, a weak internal governance, failure of UN Disarmament programmes after the end of the Third Indo-China War in 1991 led to the creation of the ready-made weapons stockpile in the country. These weapons came to the country from Thailand, China, USA and Soviet Union. Over the years, dishonest people seized and took control of these weapons and started trading with them. Tuk Thla near Phnom Penh, emerged as a prosperous market where wide range of weapons and ammunitions including rifles (AK-47 and M-16), pistols, grenades, rocket launchers, etc. are still sold at a cheap price ($15-120).

Thailand has emerged as one of the transit countries which helps in the supply of these weapons. Around 60 percent of the illegal consignments from Cambodia pass through the waters of Thailand. While proximity is definitely a factor, Thailand is an attractive tourist destination and has a huge number of foreign tourists and businessmen who are well versed in the advanced communication and transportation infrastructure to buy, sell and transport the weapons. Phuket, Bangkok and Chiang Mai are the known centres through which the SLAW are channelled. But the role of middle men who have established contacts and frequent buyers have increased in past few years, as they are considerably safer. Many of the weapons are trafficked from Cambodia via Thailand to Myanmar to the narco-insurgents, who either keep the weapons for their own use or sell it further. The extent of this trade can be traced via many examples in India and Sri Lanka. The Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are known to run intensive networks of arms trade. More so, huge shipments have been known to move through ports of South Thailand to Muslim guerrillas operating in Indonesia and Philippines. China has emerged as another source of light weapons in Southeast Asia and has many factories producing SLAWs and is known to have its fair share of illegal markets and shipments.

Illegal sales of such weapons at a very discounted price due to the decline in the legal demand for small arms and further facilitated by the corrupt officials, absence of strong control over the surplus weapons stock and massive social and economic disparities in wealth has created such huge markets. These markets have facilitated the need of the people to take the course of violence to either fulfil their personal, political or economic aspirations. With the growth in the urban population and the decreasing resources at our disposal and deteriorating social structures due to huge disparities, one cannot ignore the social, political and economic impact of the illegal arms market in South Asia and South-East Asia.

The illegal arms markets have had a tremendous impact on the fiscal management and political stability of the region. They have either fuelled the on-going conflicts or have created new one, with brutality, violence and massive instability across the society being some common factors present in all. Such markets have prevented the consolidation of the democracy and at the same time have highlighted that weak government structures will not be able to topple or eradicate the hegemony of such markets in the illegal trade. In turn, if not controlled, the illegal markets will expand the black economy and drug syndicates which would directly impact the social and economic fabric of the countries across the South, thereby hampering the human resources which the South highly boasts about. The existence of such markets has prevented the overseas investments in many South-East Asian countries.

In such a light, it is important to tackle this threat and it cannot be done alone. Many multilateral organisations, both at regional and international level have tried to tackle the rising threat of illegal arms markets and trade, but many successes have not been achieved. Controlling the illicit trade in South Asia and South-East Asia is not a easy task. Nonetheless, certain steps like promoting supplier traceability by tagging weapons and ammunition and developing a national database for the same, need to be taken. The multilateral organisation at both regional and national level need to call for the destruction of surplus arms stock and they need to strengthen the regional customs, law enforcements and intelligence structure through cooperation.

Pic Courtesy-Maxim Potkin at unsplash.com

(The views expressed are personal.)