SMALL ARMS AND HUMAN INSECURITY Reviewing Participatory Research in South Asia Dipankar Banerjee Robert Muggah A Synthesis Report documenting findings from Banshbari Slum, Dhaka & Simakhali village (Bangladesh), Ulukkulama Welfare Camp, Vavuniya (Sri Lanka), Nalabari, Assam (India) and Karachi (Pakistan) Regional Centre for Strategic Studies, Colombo Graduate Institute of Strategic Studies, Geneva 1 Published by: Regional Centre for Strategic Studies 2, Elibank Road Colombo 5, SRI LANKA. Tel: (94-1) 599734-5; Fax: 599993 e-mail: [email protected] Website: http://www.rcss.org © Regional Centre for Strategic Studies 2002 First Published: July 2002. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical or photo-copying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies. It is distributed with the understanding that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise be sold, lent, hired or otherwise circulated without the prior consent of the RCSS. Printed by Ceylon Printers Ltd, Colombo 2 Tel: 434161 ISBN: 955 8051 28 4 2 Contents Preface i Abstract iv Introduction 1 Background 4 N I Methods 5 O Linking PRA with Security and Small Arms 6 TI Case Studies 8 C • Ulukkulama (Vavuniya), Sri Lanka 10 E S • Nalbari (Assam), India 12 • Banshbari Slum (Dhaka) & Simakhali village, Bangladesh 15 • Karachi, Pakistan 16 Findings of the PRA Evaluations Effects of Small Arms as Perceived by the Communities 19 I I N Timeline of the Violence 19 O Changing Patterns in Communities Livelihoods TI Due to Violence 21 C Violence, Insecurity and Fear - Community Testimonials 28 E S Communities Knowledge of Small Arms 33 Impacts of Small Arms as Perceived by the Communities 35 Community Responses 41 • Political Solution/Conflict Resolution 41 • Restoration of Credibility of Governance 42 I I • Sustained Development and Creation of Meaningful I N Economic Opportunities 42 O • Peoples’ Initiatives 43 I T • Bridging the ethnic divide 44 C E • Arms control measures 44 S • Police and Legal Reforms 45 • Rehabilitation 45 Conclusion 46 References 48 Appendix A – Social Maps of Displacement in Ulukkulama and Alluthwatte 51 Appendix B – Community Map of Mushalpur (Assam) 53 Appendix C – Testimonials of Victims of Violence from South Asia 54 Appendix D – June 2001 Training Workshop 62 3 RCSS is grateful to the Small Arms Survey, Graduate Institute of Strategic Studies, Geneva. 4 PREFACE Small arms and light weapons proliferation are a major source of instability in today’s world. Their unregulated spread has caused widespread devastation, led to the increasing virulence of international conflicts and have seriously affected law and order, which in turn has destabilized many countries and regions. In many parts of the globe, small arms, and not nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, are today the principal source of threat to governments and their peoples. Much of this is well documented in international literature in recent years. What is less well known is how small arms affect people’s lives. What sense of insecurity they cause in people’s minds and how they affect their daily patterns of behaviour. A conceptual framework that allows a more rigorous appraisal of the relationships between small arms availability, misuse and their effects on people is that of human insecurity. The Small Arms Survey project, Geneva and the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies, Colombo, a regional think tank, which continue to work on these issues extensively, decided to pool their collective resources and explore this area in detail. Both organisations recognise that the next phase in eliminating the threat of illicit and unregulated small arms and light weapons availability, will require mobilising greater international support. This can be accomplished, in part, by raising the conscience of affected populations and their governments and linking the small arms issue to the promotion of human security. More robust and comprehensive research is required that documents the impact of small arms availability and their misuse on human lives. More innovative and creative research tools are also urgently needed to appraise these effects. A new and innovative, approach is found in Participatory Rural 5 Appraisal (PRA) and participatory action research, techniques that have been popularised in recent years to democratise and inculcate ownership in the planning and evaluation of development schemes. This joint project followed a three-stage process. First, it sought to identify appropriate researchers, and organised a training workshop to adapt the tools of PRA to the study of armed violence in South Asia. The second phase involved separate three-month studies in four communities - in order to explore the viability of specific participatory research tools in the study of armed violence as well as to review the impacts of firearm- related violence in context. The final phase involved a “review workshop” where findings were critically reviewed and lessons extracted. In this last phase, four new researchers were invited from Southeast Asia to participate in the discussions and plan for the expansion of the project into their own region. This path-breaking project has involved many people and there are many to thank. We are particularly grateful to Mallika Samaranayake, for the enormous enthusiasm with which she took up the task. A leading expert in PRA in South Asia, she has devised a number of seminal research techniques to suit this task. Her enthusiasm was infectious - and many have and will continue to profit under her guidance. Our particular gratitude must be extended to the four South Asian researchers; Anindita Dasgupta (northeast India), Sharif Kafi (Bangladesh) and Naeem Ahmed (Pakistan). They worked under conditions that were at times dangerous and insecure and their efforts deserve high praise. Their diligence and energetic approach to the research have generated exciting results - and we look forward to sharing them with the communities who participated. Our thanks are also due to Mallika Joseph in Delhi. A researcher on small arms proliferation and anti-personnel mines, her efforts in supporting the writing of the synthesis report were an immense help. 6 Finally, all credit for this project and my personal appreciation is due to Robert Muggah, who developed the idea, convinced us all of its usefulness and through his sheer dynamism and perseverance brought this project together and to fruition. His organisational capability, conceptualising the project and preparation of the final report has enabled the project to be a successful one - that looks to gather momentum in the coming years. Finally, we dedicate the monograph to all those who have suffered from the spread of small arms and light weapons. Many have not only suffered fatal and non-fatal injuries, but have been traumatised so severely that a life of normality remains but an ephemeral dream. Let this small effort lead us on a path where this suffering will be repeated no more. Dipankar Banerjee Colombo Executive Director July 02 RCSS 7 Abstract A substantial proportion of the world’s 500,000 annual firearm- related deaths occur in South Asia, a trend that parallels alarming shifts in the global and local dynamics of small arms proliferation (Small Arms Survey 2001; 2002). In addition to their direct human toll, the indiscriminate use of such weapons in vicious internal conflicts plaguing most nation-states of the region have consequences that extend far beyond fatal and non-fatal injuries. Fear for life and physical well-being, as well as fear to freely exercise religious, cultural, political and economic rights and entitlements fundamentally arise out of this environment - where powerful small arms are relatively easy to procure, controls are extremely lax, the use of guns widespread and casualties disturbingly common. Most analysis of the issue of small arms and their impact on people’s security has been premised on “objective” criteria — of readily available statistics on weapons, as well as descriptive epidemiological surveillance of deaths and injury (Krug et al 1998; UN, 1998). What has not been attempted, until now, is a comprehensive representation of the issue of small arms and their effects as interpreted “subjectively”. There are few studies that endeavour to comprehensively assess the experience of people living in conflict zones and how the presence of small arms is conceived in relation to their personal security. To overcome this research gap, the Small Arms Survey (SAS) in Switzerland and the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS) in Sri Lanka established a joint project with the primary objective of gauging real and perceived “human insecurity” among civilians affected by social violence in South Asia. The project drew on qualitative methodologies - specifically participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and rapid rural appraisal (RRA) - to measure “risk” and “vulnerability” in four communities in South Asia affected by small arms-related violence. The project is, in essence, a pilot to test out methods of measuring insecurity 8 relating to small arms. This synthesis report collates a number of the key findings from each of the reports — drawing, to the extent possible, on the authors’ own words, interpretations and visual aids. The first objective of the co-ordinators of the project, to determine whether participatory research had any added value to uncover qualitative dimensions of arms related insecurity, was achieved. It is clear from the individual community reports (Ahmed, 2001; Dasgupta, 2001, Kafi, 2001 and Samaranayake, 2001) that while some participatory methods are more applicable than others — there is a strong case for expanding participatory action research in the security and disarmament fields — but also for thinking creatively about its applications in relation to the monitoring and evaluation of violence reduction programmes, weapons collection and destruction initiatives and security sector reform. A number of general findings emerged from the research highlighting the range of impacts that communities experience as a result of small arms availability and use. Findings from the PRA exercises in the selected four communities reveal that livelihoods had been affected in a number of short and long- term ways as a consequence of prolonged exposure to armed violence. Some of the impacts, across all case studies, included: • Fear, anxiety, suspicion and insecurity; • Forcible and voluntary displacement; • Changes in occupation; • Changes in expenditure patterns; • Contribution to the polarisation along ethnic and political lines; • Impacts on the quality, delivery and sustainability of developmental activities; and, • Systematic erosion of the credibility of national and municipal governance Many of the conflicts underway in South Asia have shifted from persistent political dissatisfaction in the 1980s to low, medium 9 and high-intensity armed protests in the 1990s. It is perhaps not coincidental that two major sources of small arms in the region – the ‘Afghan pipeline’ and post Cold War small arms stockpiles in South East Asia -opened up at this time. From the findings of the PRA studies, it appears that violence is especially pronounced among ethnic conflicts aimed at secession or autonomy. Some of the community solutions suggested include: • Dialogue and the enforcement of political solutions and the introduction of strategies aimed at promoting cultures of non-violent conflict resolution; • A renewed effort to restore the credibility of national and municipal governance in affected areas; • A renewed commitment to ensuring that sustainable development takes place in affected areas, particularly through the creation of meaningful economic opportunities for young men; and • More emphasis on ensuring that people participate in the design, planning and implementation of violence- reduction strategies as well as development more generally It is important to stress that most communities felt threatened by the excesses committed by security forces and were particularly worried about being caught in the crossfire between armed forces. Virtually without exception, they believed that a political solution to armed violence is the only workable option for redressing insecurity and that preventive and reactive military responses would yield few positive results. Despite a strong awareness of the political and economic machinations of conflicts, many community members invested considerable faith in the ability of the political system to resolve the issue of small arms availability, provided that the political will existed to do something about the problem. 10