‘Small arms cause 60-90 per cent deaths’

ISLAMABAD - Small arms are the reason for 60 to 90 per cent deaths due to direct conflicts that occur each year.

Approximately 90,000 people were killed every year while 1.5 million people were injured every year. Ismat Ullah Khan, Project Officer of SPADO, an NGO, supporting implementation of UN programme of action and de-weaponisation, said this during a press conference here on Saturday.

He said there is trade of small arms worth $ 10 billion in black market per year and a rough estimate showed that a total of illegal weapons being traded were more than 10 million. He said that 95 countries can produce small arms and ammunition and tens of thousands of armed children are fighting in more than 20 conflicts around the word. Most of the victims are civilians and an estimated 2 million children have been killed with small arms from 1990 to 2004. He said AK-47 is the world’s favourite killing machine, which is produced in 14 countries, and unfortunately Pakistan has the biggest per capita rate of gun ownership, he said.

The rate of private gun ownership in Pakistan is 11.6 firearms per 100 people and Pakistan is the victim of gun violence, as armed violence is detrimental to any nation and, he said. He said it endangers the political stability and armed violence imposes a tremendous human and economic burden on individuals, families and communities. It also leaves lasting psychological and physical effects on survivors and most recently Karachi, the business hub of Pakistan, is bearing the major brunt of this phenomenon, he said.

He said Pakistan is losing billions in revenue and target killings and continued closure of shops and markets in Karachi. Furthermore, five years back Pakistan was the most attractive destination for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), he said.

However, the government is unable to control this phenomenon, as there are many factors, which are fuelling this phenomenon. SPADO is also involved in mobilising and effectively utilising the youth volunteers in campaigns against small arms, he said

He said SPADO had also engaged religious scholars to condemn use of small arms.

Small Arms Fundamentals

SAR Show

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http://nation.com.pk/pakistan-news-newspaper-daily-english-online/Regional/Islamabad/19-Jun-2011/Small-arms-cause-6090--per-cent-deaths

Libyan rebels smuggling weapons through Tunisia

Libyan rebels are being helped to smuggle weapons through Tunisia to fight Col Muammar Gaddafi's forces in western Libya, the BBC has learned.

One Libyan smuggler told the BBC that AK-47 rifles and grenade launchers were being taken across the border in small but frequent consignments.

Other equipment being smuggled included Milans - a type of wire-guided anti-tank missile - machine guns, sniper rifles, and night-vision goggles.

Pro-Gaddafi forces are on the Tunisian border, and shelling often spills over.

The fledgling Tunisian government is fearful of giving overt support to the rebels, and Tunisian border guards are under orders to search each car going in to Libya.

But members of the Libyan diaspora are funding the purchase of small arms to send to western Libya, said the Libyan smuggler, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity.

The smuggler said it was not a professional operation, but was carried out with the help of Tunisians sympathetic to the Libyan rebels.

The weapons are destined for towns in the Nafousa mountains, where rebels are fighting to wrest control of the west from Col Gaddafi.


While Benghazi in the east has sent weapons to rebel-held coastal enclaves like Misrata, the Nafousa mountains are landlocked.

Rebel Commander Ahbeel Dody, who we met on his way through Tunisia back into the mountains in the West, said a shortage of weapons in the Nafousa mountains was prolonging the war.

Towns in the area have gained ground in frequent clashes with Col Gaddafi's forces.

'Need heavier weapons'

"We are still mostly relying on what we can seize in battle from Col Gaddafi's forces," says Cdr Dody, who commands 500 men and has been visiting wounded fighters in Tunisian hospitals.

"It would be better if Nato sent us more and heavier weapons officially."

He says he and the other rebel commanders have a registration programme in which they record the serial number of each weapon and the name of the fighter it is given to, so the weapons can be collected when the war is over.


The BBC cannot independently verify that a record of weapons going to rebels fighters is being kept.

"When we win, we will collect all the weapons for the new Libyan army, we will not keep them," says Cdr Dody. "I want to get back to my work of building houses."

Among his fighters are the manager of a local bank and a pensioner.

But any flow of weapons through its territory is clearly of concern to Tunisia's interim government.

Night-time rockets

It has its own fledgling revolution to protect. It is dealing with strikes and demonstrations, trying to organise elections and establish security and stability in the aftermath of its uprising.

And the Tunisian government is wary of going against Col Gaddafi, especially with his forces taking positions so close to its borders.

"Our wives are terrified by the shelling from Col Gaddafi's forces," one resident of the dusty Tunisian town of Dahiba said. "The rockets come right across the border at night."

One man shows me a battered silver rocket, grey and glinting in the sunlight.

The men in Dahiba say their income from cross-border trade has dried up because of the war.

"We haven't been able to plant or water our fields either because they are too close to the shelling," one of them says.

The taxi drivers and restaurant owners have been affected too.

There are not many European pensioners taking the aquarobics class at the hotel pool, and there is no haggling to be heard at the souvenir stalls.

Tourism in Tunisia is down by 50%.

Yet Tunisian families are opening up their homes to provide free lodging for the bulk of 130,000 Libyans who have fled the fighting.

A Libyan charity co-ordinator, Oum Kaltoum, breaks down in tears when she takes me to meet a Tunisian seamstress who has had six Tunisian families to stay for more than two months now, three families to a room.

'Not sustainable'

Tunisian towns cannot bear the strain much longer, says Nader Elhamessi from World Medical Camp Libya.

Libyan refugees have increased the population of one town, Tataouine, by half.

"That's a lot of electricity, water, food and medicine to pay for," says Mr Elhamessi. "It's just not sustainable, people will start to resent it and there will be incidents."


The tensions are already visible. The trademark Land Cruiser vehicles favoured by members of Col Gaddafi's government and entourage can be seen driving along the seafront at Djerba, with its ice-cream parlours and its plush hotels.

Tunisians joined Libyans to stage a protest outside a hotel where Col Gaddafi's wife and son were known to be staying.

The odd fight breaks out too. In the border town of Ben Gardane, there were clashes between pro- and anti-Gaddafi Tunisians on Sunday.

Many Tunisians who have lost their income because of the Libyan war say they support the rebels.

"Freedom has no price, the Libyan rebels are our brothers," says Habib Haj Abdallah, a resident of Dahiba, as he stands with a group of men and boys gathered on the hillside to watch for Col Gaddafi's rockets.
They have scrawled the name Bab al-Azizya on the wall, after Col Gaddafi's compound in Tripoli which is bombed regularly by Nato forces.

Whether they support the Libyan revolution or not, the Tunisians I have met from the capital in the north to the border in the south say the same thing.
"If the Libyan revolution fails, we will suffer more than the Libyans." Why? "Because Tunisia was the spark."

Libyan Rebels (English)

Transferring Smuggled Weapons

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13745337

Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal may be ‘compromised’: report

Recent terrorist attacks on military installations suggest the “safety and security of nuclear weapons materials in Pakistan may very well be compromised,” says an article published in the Combating Terrorism Center’s magazine, Sentinel, at the U. S. Military Academy West Point.

“A frontal assault on nuclear weapons storage facilities, which are the most robustly defended elements of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons cycle, is no longer an implausible event,” writes Dr. Shaun Gregory, director of the Pakistan Security Unit at the University of Bradford in Britain.

Pakistani terrorists have already shown their ability to carry out violent attacks at facilities that were reliably identified as being part of the country’s nuclear weapons program, he says.

But Pakistan’s push to double the size of its nuclear arsenal, by building 12 to 15 nuclear weapons a year over the last three or four years, greatly increases its vulnerability to terrorist attacks on nuclear targets.

“As the number of nuclear weapons facilities grows, and the number of those with access to nuclear weapons or related components rises, the complex challenge of assuring the security of nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons components will become ever more difficult,” Dr. Gregory writes.

As many as 70,000 people in Pakistan already have access to or knowledge of some element of the nuclear weapons production, storage, maintenance and deployment cycle, he says.

“Some may be willing to collude in various ways with terrorists,” he adds.

When Pakistan first developed its nuclear program in the 1970s and 1980s, its main concern was attack by India.

As a result, most nuclear infrastructure was placed in the north and west of the country or near Islamabad and Rawalpindi, where it is less likely to be overrun by India during a war.

But in recent years, Pakistani Taliban and al-Qaeda terrorists have been active in all those areas. Since 2007, they have launched several attacks on nuclear weapons facilities. These include:

? November 2007 A suicide bomber killed eight people in an attack on a nuclear missile storage facility at Sargodha, south of Islamabad.

? December 2008 A suicide bomb assault on an airbase at Kamra.

? August 2008 Teams of suicide bombers staged coordinated attacks on the armament complex at the Wah cantonment, where Pakistan’s nuclear weapons are believed to be assembled.

Even more worrying, says Dr. Gregory, are recent attacks on some of the country’s most secure military sites

On May 22, a team of 10 terrorists attacked the Mehran naval aviation base in Karachi. They stormed the high-security base from several places and appeared to know the location of its intruder detection cameras. Using rocketpropelled grenades, explosives and small arms, they destroyed several aircraft, took hostages and occupied the base for nearly 18 hours.

The Karachi attack mirrored an equally stunning 2009 raid by radical Islamists on the Pakistan Army’s general headquarters in Rawalpindi.

In that case, terrorists dressed in military uniforms, driving army vehicles and with a “sensitive map” of the sprawling complex, staged a 20-hour hostage taking in which 20 were killed.

“The modalities of this attack add up to a virtual blueprint for a successful attack on a nuclear weapons facility,” Dr. Gregory says.

Pakistani terrorist groups have shown they can penetrate layers of security, use army uniforms and vehicles with the appropriate licence plates and forge identification cards to deceive military guards, he says.

They have also had knowledge of sensitive military information and protocols, and have been able to develop detailed intelligence on their targets weeks before an operation.

“Almost certainly [the terrorists] learned their tactics from the SSG [the Pakistan Army's elite commandos, the Special Service Group], which had trained earlier generations of Pakistani/Kashmiri militants in similar tactics for operations against India,” he says.

“Terrorist groups have now shown themselves capable of penetrating even the most securely defended of Pakistan’s military bases and of holding space within those bases for many hours, even against the elite SSG, more than enough time with the right equipment and sufficient numbers to carry out terrorist acts with enormous political or destructive pay-off.”

Pakistan Nuclear Arsenal

Rising Threat

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http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/06/14/pakistans-nuclear-arsenal-may-be-compromised-report/
http://www.themuslimreporter.com/

Cops Should Have Non Lethat Weapons

About 40 years ago, a very influential mover and shaker of a political party felt that importing illegal firearms to go to war with the opposing side was justified. Then, as now, the acquisition and retention of power was supreme. Individuals, lives, families, communities and all eligible Jamaicans were depersonalised and simply reduced to 'voters' and 'constituents' (objects to be manipulated and tallied at election time).

The opposing side subsequently felt that importing illegal firearms to 'defend' itself was justified. The resultant armed conflicts snuffed out many lives on both sides. Guns were not only used for offence and defence, they were also used by political enforcers to ensure that the 'electors' voted for the 'right side'. In those days, everyone voted (even the dead, the unconscious and those that were unable to make it to the polling stations).

Guns did more than snuff out many innocent and not-so-innocent lives; they snuffed out freedom (of speech, movement, thought, worship), democracy, innumerable human rights (especially in poor communities), a lot of investment (local and foreign), jobs, recreation, hope, trust and patriotism. Guns also facilitated the birth of criminal gangs.

The gun became a status symbol and the ultimate source of power for the disenfranchised and powerless. It transformed Jamaica into a battleground with some individuals protected by influential movers and shakers of the political parties. Once guns became prevalent enough to wreak havoc on the wider society (and not only in small communities), our constabulary was forced to join the arms race in earnest and equip itself, physically and mentally, for outright war. The overt hostilities exhibited by emboldened thugs forced cops to become aggressive and adopt the gun as the primary weapon for offence and defence in a wide variety of circumstances.

panacea for crime suppression

The extended state of emergency (declared in 1976) entrenched in the security forces many of the negative attitudes (towards civilians) that have endured throughout the decades. Additionally, between genuine shoot-outs with criminal elements, trigger-happy cops and extrajudicial killings - inspired by terrorised communities pleading for rescue, witness intimidation and witness murder - the list of police shootings caught the attention of both local and international human-rights groups. To many cops, the gun became the panacea for crime suppression.

The two recent videotaped and widely publicised shootings by the police highlight the obvious and urgent need for the acquisition of non-lethal weapons, including pepper spray and the stun gun. I am very aware of the drawbacks of stun guns. They are not completely safe and may be dangerous if misused (if discharged repeatedly into, or if the trigger is held for long on, the same person).

In-custody sudden deaths increased sixfold after the stun gun was introduced to California law-enforcement officers; however, this was attributed to misuse. After the first year, with proper use of that electronic device, that figure fell to almost pre-stun gun levels. One study even concluded that, whereas stun gun introduction within jurisdictions showed an increase in in-custody deaths, there was no reduction in police shooting deaths. However, training in when and how to use the device would remedy that problem.

On the other hand, guns are almost always used to kill. The mortality from gunshot wounds varies according to the distance, the number of hits, calibre, type of weapon used and the area hit. The survival statistics for cranial injuries are dismal, and chest and abdominal injuries are more lethal than limb shots.

Obviously, firearms are far more lethal than stun guns. We must reduce police killings, and I see the use of non-lethal weapons as one way to do it.

Police Used Non Lethal Weapons



Non Lethal Weapon Training



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http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20110613/cleisure/cleisure2.html

Fate of Emerging Technology Fund Tied Up In Special Session Negotiations

With education and health programs facing steep cuts in the face of an estimated $27 billion shortfall in the state budget, there was never much hope that lawmakers would find extra money to allocate for the Texas Emerging Technology Fund (ETF) this session.

Therefore supporters of the ETF, which provides early-stage financing for promising technology start-up companies, have been hoping the Legislature would simply leave the program alone rather than raiding its unexpended funds and/or shutting it down altogether.

But so far they are still waiting on a final resolution. The fate of the ETF is tied up in House Bill 1, the big appropriations bill that was filibustered at the end of the regular session. Jim Poage, president and CEO of San Antonio-based Startech, the nonprofit entity that works with start-up companies to help them to grow and gain access to capital, says he is fairly confident that things are going well. But he won’t know for sure until the final details get worked out during the Special Session that is currently underway.

“They are debating a number of riders with details that must be worked out,” Poage says. “I still think we are in great shape, but it would have been nice if we had gotten this passed during the regular session.”

The ETF, which was established five years ago, has already invested about $193 million in 131 early stage companies. Startech is one of the entities that helps to manage those investments. Poage says it would not make much sense to walk away now.

The ETF is one of the highest profile jobs programs in the U.S., Poage says. The ETF needs to continue nurture those companies to protect and watch over the investment that has already been made.

Fate of Emerging Technology Fund



Gov Rick Perry Explaining Fund




What Is EFT?

TETF Advisory Committee


The Governor has appointed a blue-ribbon ETF Advisory Committee composed of individuals who are industry leaders in Texas and or who are nationally recognized researchers from public or private institutions of higher education in Texas.

Commercialization Awards

The goal of the ETF Commercialization Awards is to grow new small businesses and existing businesses to accelerate new products and services to the marketplace. Through these investments, the goal is to ensure a vibrant economy for Texas and a global leadership position. Commercialization awards provide selected, early-stage investments in new, technology-based, private entrepreneurial entities that collaborate with public or private institutions of higher education in Texas, and which, if successful, may provide significant economic benefit to the state.

Research Superiority Acquisition Awards

The ETF Research Superiority Acquisition goal is to bring the best and brightest researchers in the world to Texas. This enables our Texas academic institutions to continue to build expertise in key research areas, attract and encourage students to pursue advanced degrees in math, sciences, and engineering, and provide an invaluable resource to the community, especially fostering innovation and commercialization in our companies.

Regional Center of Innovation and Commercialization


Seven regions of the state have been established to administer the program through a "Regional Center of Innovation and Commercialization." In addition, a statewide Life Science Regional Center of Innovation and Commercialization also was formed.

Helps Texas Meet Future Energy Challenges

The Emerging Technology Fund (ETF) was created by the Texas Legislature in 2005 at the urging of Gov. Perry to provide Texas with an unparalleled advantage in the research, development, and commercialization of emerging technologies.Your feedback is always welcome. Thank you! http://www.winncad.com http://www.docstoc.com/profile/corona7 http://www.linkedin.com/pub/paul-corona/10/63a/200 http://www.scribd.com/crown%20007 http://www.facebook.com/people/WinnCad-Elements/100001525374479 http://www.youtube.com/user/Winncad

http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/blog/2011/06/fate-of-emerging-technology-fund-tied.html
http://governor.state.tx.us/ecodev/etf/etf_about/

U.S. Army Europe

By: Todd Oliver
SLUNJ, Croatia - The sounds of Croatian and U.S. soldiers firing their weapons filled the air kicking off Exercise Immediate Response 2011 in Slunj, Croatia. The soldiers from 1st Platoon, Company B, 2nd Combined Arms Battalion, 136th Infantry, Minnesota Army National Guard, patrolled alongside Croatian joint-tactical air controllers, as they conducted situational training exercises


As the convoy of approximately 10 vehicles conducted a slow-moving patrol through the training area, a simulated improvised explosive device followed by an attack with small arms, brought their progress to a grinding halt. It was no surprise to anyone on the patrol.
“Today’s training was about IED clearance,” said 2nd Lt. Brendan Morrison, platoon leader. “We’re given a mission to go down a certain route, and we’re told that there have been attacks there in recent days. So we went down the road, and we came across some pretty heavy resistance.”

This kind of training is standard fare for an infantryman in today’s Army. Mock patrols are conducted through a “rough area” which helps leaders and soldiers refine their skills should the attack ever be real. What sets this particular exercise apart is the multinational aspect. Along with the U.S. soldiers is a vehicle nothing like American high-mobility, multi-purpose wheeled vehicle carrying the Croatian JTACs. Each U.S. or Croatian platoon-sized, or larger, element has a small attachment of the other nationality with them, further refining the skills needed to operate together.

“We’ve been working with the Croatians for at least four or five years now,” Morrison said. “We’ve had a person here in Croatia with them since 1996 actually. We, along with the Croatians, are sending observer mentor liaison teams to Afghanistan to train the Afghan forces so they can become a better military. Our relationship with the Croatian military is very strong. They’re our allies, and the more friends we have in this world the better.”

Spc. Brandon Grabau, a squad automatic weapon gunner taking part in the exercise, said the opportunity to train with his Croatian counterparts is useful and unique.

“This is the first time I’ve ever worked with soldiers from another nation; actually this is the first time I’ve been out of the U.S.,” Grabau said. “It’s been pretty cool. They have a very interesting culture, and I’m learning a lot.”

“It’s a good thing because we get to see how they train; they can see how we train, and we both get to see the differences. They might do some things better than we do, and we might do something better than they do. If we can each learn something from the other that’s an improvement; we both get better.”

From the IED clearance lane, the platoon moved on to a small mock village where they practiced searching buildings room by room. Meanwhile, a Croatian platoon with a small U.S. JTAC team slowly began their patrol through the IED lane. Other training events included dismounted and mounted patrols and a cordon-and-search exercise. These situational training events move from the platoon level to a three-day company-level exercise simulating combat environment beginning June 13.

Immediate Response is a multinational exercise that includes more than 1,000 participants from across U.S. Army Europe; Texas, Minnesota and Utah National Guards, the United States Air Force and service members from Croatia, Montenegro, Germany, Albania, Bosnia, Macedonia and Serbia. Croatia has had service members deployed in support of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan since 2003. There are currently more than 300 Croatian service members serving in Afghanistan.           
IED Clearing

IED Road Cleaning 

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 http://www.dvidshub.net/image/413522/us-and-croatian-soldiers-train-together-during-exercise-immediate-response-2011

How Many Nuclear Weapons Still Threaten Humanity?

By David Krieger

       The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) is one of the most authoritative institutes in the world on issues of war and peace. The recently-released 2011 SIPRI Yearbook provides estimates of the number of nuclear weapons in the world. It finds that only four countries have deployed nuclear warheads, by which it means warheads placed on missiles or located on bases with operational forces. Two of these countries are the U.S. and Russia, which have 2,150 and 2,427 deployed nuclear weapons, respectively.

Under the terms of the New Start agreement, ratified in 2010, each country is required to reduce the number of deployed strategic warheads to 1,550 by the year 2017. The other two countries with deployed nuclear weapons, according to SIPRI, are the UK with 160 deployed weapons and France with 290 deployed weapons.
The total number of deployed nuclear weapons in the world stands at 5,027 in 2011. Of these, SIPRI estimates that some 2,000 are kept on high operational alert, ready to be fired within moments of an order to do so.

In addition to its deployed nuclear weapons, the U.S. has 6,350 additional weapons for a total of 8,500. Russia has 8,570 additional weapons for a total of 11,000. The UK has an additional 65 weapons for a total of 225. France has an additional 10, for a total of 300. Four other countries have only non-deployed nuclear weapons, according to SIPRI: China with 240; India with 80-100; Pakistan with 90-110; and Israel with 80.

SIPRI does not list North Korea among the countries having a stockpile of nuclear weapons, although relatively small nuclear devices have been tested by North Korea in 2006 and 2009. SIPRI acknowledges that there is a widespread belief that North Korea has separated enough plutonium for a small number of nuclear weapons, but indicates there is controversy over the amount of plutonium they have separated and the yield of their nuclear tests. They also point out that “doubts persist about whether North Korea has the design and engineering skills needed to manufacture a fully functional operational nuclear weapon.” It seems highly likely to me, however, that North Korea possesses a small number of nuclear weapons and is the ninth nuclear weapon state.

Between 2010 and 2011, the U.S. reduced its nuclear stockpile from 9,600 to 8,500. During the same period, Russia reduced its stockpile from 12,000 to 11,000. While the U.S. and Russia were reducing their arsenals, the UK, France, China and Israel were holding steady at lower levels. India and Pakistan, on the other hand, were increasing the sizes of their arsenals: India from 60-80 to 80-110, and Pakistan from 70-90 to 90-110. Overall, the total number of nuclear weapons in the world decreased from 22,600 to 20,530.

The trends are these: modest reductions by the U.S. and Russia, indicating a continuing commitment to maintaining their nuclear arsenals at a relatively high level of overkill; no reductions by the UK, France, China and Israel, indicating a continuing commitment to retaining their arsenals at current levels, at least until more substantial progress in reductions is made by the U.S. and Russia; and increases in the arsenals of India and Pakistan, indicating a continuing nuclear arms race in South Asia.

The modest reductions made by the U.S. and Russia and the further reductions agreed to by the two countries in the New START agreement are offset by their commitments to modernizing their nuclear arsenals and improving their systems of delivery. A SIPRI media statement pointed out that “both countries currently are deploying new nuclear weapon delivery systems or have announced programs to do so, and appear determined to retain their nuclear arsenals into the indefinite future.”

Regarding India and Pakistan, the SIPRI statement pointed out that they “continue to develop new ballistic and cruise missile systems capable of delivering nuclear weapons” and that both countries “are also expanding their capacities to produce fissile material for military purposes.” Other experts have done simulations of a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan with 50 to 100 Hiroshima-size nuclear weapons and have estimated that it could lead to a blocking of sunlight and lowering of temperatures, causing widespread drought and crop failure, resulting in some one billion deaths in the region.

While there are some ten percent fewer nuclear weapons in the world from 2010 to 2011, it is not time to breathe a sigh of relief at what has been accomplished. The overall trend is toward fewer nuclear weapons, but weapons and delivery systems that are more highly modernized – what the U.S. refers to for itself as a “safe, secure and effective nuclear stockpile.” In reality, the only type of stockpile that will meet the criteria of being “safe, secure and effective” will be a global stockpile of zero nuclear weapons.

Any number other than zero will continue to present unacceptable risks to humanity. What is needed now is a new treaty, a Nuclear Weapons Convention, for the “safe, secure and effective” elimination of all nuclear weapons. The U.S. and Russia, the countries with the largest nuclear arsenals, should be providing the leadership to achieve this goal.

David Krieger is president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation (www.wagingpeace.org), an organization that has worked since 1982 to educate and advocate for a world free of nuclear weapons.

Atomic Bomb Test

            
             First H Bomb Test


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