By Patrick Jaramogi

UGANDA and other countries in the Great Lakes region have up to December 30 to brand the firearms under State control.

Dr. Francis Sang, the executive secretary of the Regional Centre on Small Arms and Light Weapons, yesterday announced the ultimatum in Kampala.

“All the firearms under state control should be taken care of to avoid misuse. That is why we have set December 30 this year as the deadline for all member states to brand their weapons,” he said.

The ultimatum, he added was agreed to by line ministers from the 12-member states and was also recommended under Article Seven of the 2000 Nairobi Declaration.

The members are Burundi, Kenya, the DR Congo, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia, the Central African Republic and Uganda.

Sang was opening a five-day sub-regional workshop on small arms and light weapons at the Imperial Royale Hotel in Kampala.

He noted that only Rwanda had branded 8,000 firearms using chisels.

He said the secretariat had procured 12 branding machines and delivered them to members.

“These machines are fast and have the best branding technology in the world. It only needs a computerised system to read the brand numbers,” said Sang

He said the firearms would be branded with specific country codes and it would help in tracing origins of arms used in illegal activities.

“Next year, we shall put guidelines on how member states can import arms from abroad. All arms will be entered into a data base showing point of origin and destination,” he said.

Sang called for collaboration among the region’s countries in stamping out arms proliferation.