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CNN Live Saturday

U.S. Opposes U.N. Action to Hinder Small Arms Trade

Aired July 14, 2001 - 16:09   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: A United Nations conference is aimed at putting together an action plan to combat small arms trafficking.

But as CNN senior U.N. correspondent Richard Roth tells us, the proposal is getting static from Washington and the U.S. gun lobby.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC)

RICHARD ROTH, CNN SENIOR U.N. CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Singing children on the plaza of the United Nations: not the first or last time at the home for world peace. But many of these youngsters have witnessed anything but peace in our time. These children are from countries where war is common. The reason for their U.N. appearance looms behind them: the gun. Or, as the U.N. hopes, a gun that can't fire anymore.

So-called small arms are responsible for the deaths of thousands of children around the world, and the United Nations is hosting a major conference to cut the flow of the weapons that kill 1,000 people a day. Zlata Filipovic ducked snipers in Sarajevo.

ZLATA FILIPOVIC: I kept hearing those bullets, and they were coming towards the city; they were coming towards my home.

ROTH: Zlata Filipovic says the small arms conference should reach agreement to stop illegal arms trafficking.

But despite many rosy sounding dreams, having 189 members at the United Nations doesn't produce agreement on such contentious issues.

BRIAN JOHNSON THOMAS, INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: The problem is there is so much pressure from some governments not to have a settlement, because they have large industries which are closely involved.

ROTH: Brian Johnson Thomas covers the illegal arms trade. He came to the U.N. conference armed with guns like those illegally traded that have turned up from Brazil to Turkey. He says the system is so lax in AK-47 rifle can be sold for $40 straight from the factory.

THOMAS: There is virtually no control over brokering, and there's no control over transportation. And it's always somebody else's problem.

ROTH: The Bush administration delegation to the conference thinks the U.N. wants to make the world's gun problem a U.S. problem.

JOHN BOLTON, U.S. UNDERSECRETARY OF STATE: You start off with a half of a phrase in a resolution that nobody reads that then gets turned into a political declaration that suddenly becomes a binding international agreement. You can see that from little acorns bad treaties grow.

ROTH: The U.S. is praised for some of the toughest laws against illegal gun trading, which makes its rejection of small arms treaty proposals a deep disappointment.

LORETTA BONDI, FUND FOR PEACE: We were hoping that the U.S. would be leading the effort to extend these controls world-wide. Instead it has chosen to take a really backward position.

WAYNE LA PIERRE, NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION: This U.N. conference is about disarming us, American citizens, and taking away our firearms; and we're opposed to that.

ROTH: The U.N. vehemently denies this, insisting it wants to focus on clamping down on the estimated $1 billion global arms trafficking business.

Richard Roth, CNN, United Nations.

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