CALGARY - Amnesty International is accusing G-8 countries of doing little to regulate the illegal traffic of small weapons.
The advocacy group says this is leading to human rights violations. The group is taking part in the G-6B or People's Summit in Calgary.
Nyararai Magudu says in his home country of Mozambique the population is 17 million people, and there are 10 million illicit small arms.
Magudu says the weapons were once used in war, but are now used on the streets.
"Car hijacks, drug dealings... Families or ethnic groups or tribes, they can come up in arms with one another and the instruments they use are small arms. The impact is very great."
Magudu says many of these weapons are either built in G-8 countries, or financed using money from G-8 countries.
Brian Wood, Amnesty's international secretariat, points to recent American military assistance programs to countries with a history of human rights violations; Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Philippines. He says Amnesty has a golden rule they would like G-8 leaders to adopt.
"We will not allow arms from our countries or in the hands of our citizens to be transferred to anybody who is likely to commit serious human rights violations, war crimes or crimes against humanity."
Wood says there have been some improvements since Sept. 11.
He says some American leaders have recognized Al Qaeda members got their weapons originally through American channels, and that the states need to crack down on the weapons trade to avoid terrorist attacks.
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