Under the strong leadership of Michel Rocard, the esteemed former Prime Minister of France, and Alpha Oumar Konare, the distinguished President of Mali, the Eminent Persons Group has set out to build a global coalition of member States and NGOs in favor of a realistic, affordable and effective set of proposals to help reduce the spread of illicit small arms. With the majority of illicit small arms proven to originate in the licit trade, EPG advances a “cooperative regulatory approach” to small arms control. Acknowledging that “the Millennium Report of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, provides an appropriate and realistic point for such an approach,” the Report of the First Continental Meeting of African Experts on Small Arms and Light Weapons, which was held by the OAU in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, May 17-19, states: “It was suggested that any international agenda should be at the level of norm setting and through cooperation at the national, sub-regional, regional and international levels. Norm seting could, inter alia, include, “Standardization of legal arms transfer codes by, amongst others, generating criteria for global and regional registries for transparency on arms deals.” It is the considered opinion of members of the Eminent Persons Group that, given monetary and time constrictions, regulating the legitimate transfer of small arms will, in the nearf term, significantly reduce the supply of illicit diversion. As I said in my speech before the OAU Continental Experts Meeting, which is helping lay the ground for a common African approach to be deliberated upon at the OAU Ministerial in Bamako in October: “Most of the regulatory actions will affect supplier states, of which the most prominent are the permanent members of the UN Security Council. The increased security, safety, and stability, however, reaped from regulated supply will be most prominent in the developing countries.” At the Washington convocation, May 2-4, the members of the Eminent Persons Group welcomed and strongly supported the UN Secretary-General’s call for a global small arms nonproliferation regime. EPG considers its efforts complimentary to and supportive of Mr. Annan’s strong leadership on small arms. I am pleased that both, the UN and OAU Secretaries-General, support the Group’s intention to foster early agreement among member States on elements of an agenda for the 2001 UN conference. We share the belief that EPG can play an important role in this field. As Mr. Salim told the Washington convocation: “The creation of the Eminent Persons Group, composed of personalities with a diverse range of experience at high levels of leadership and responsibilties, and who come from different parts of the world, presents a tremendous opportunity for collectively and vigorously pursuing the goal of controlling small arms.” The Washington Communique calls for small arms control to limit supply and reduce demand. On the supply side such an approach necessitates measures aimed at effectively regulating legal transfers between states based on a principle of responsible restraint, controlling the availability, use and storage of small arms within states and preventing and combating illicit transfers. Correspondingly, on the demand side, the international community must commit to helping reverse cultures of violence through reform of the security sector and through the promotion of norms of civilian non-possession. Also, reduction measures must be devised to secure, destroy or otherwise responsibly dispose of the obscene quantities of small arms already in circulation. The Consultative Document was discussed at the Washington convocation and is submitted for the consideration of member States and NGOs. Comments and suggestions are invited and will be fully considered at the Group’s next meeting in Bamako, Mali, December 18-19, 2000, which will be convened at the invitation of the Government of Mali. A revised document will be published in time for the 2001 UN conference. In conclusion, beyond conveying words of appreciation to all members of the Eminent Persons Group and the Secretariat for their exemplary service this past year, I wish, above all, to express my deep gratitude to Michel Rocard for agreeing to serve as co-chair and displaying the high level of personal involvement in the Group’s decisionmaking and public diplomacy programme. I am grateful to Dr. Louis W. Goodman, Dean of the School of International Service at American University, Washington, D. C., my alma mater, for availing us of the school’s outstanding research facilities and for hosting the Washington convocation. Also, I want to acknowledge fully the input of the members of the Group’s policy planning staff in preparing the consultative document: Professor Duncan L. Clarke, Jason Meyers, Sondra Tosky, and Christopher Ficek, all of the School of International Service. The particular contributions to the consultative document by Celso L. N. Amorim (Brazil), Jonathan Dean (United States), Rolf Ekeus (Sweden), Nabil Fahmy (Egypt), David Owen (United Kingdom), Salim Salim (Tanzania) and, above all, Sola Ogunbanwo (Nigeria) deserve special mention. Moreover, I am greatly indebted to Donald Duran Davis, the Group’s administrative director, for his substantive input into the policy planning staff deliberations. Also, I want to thank Kate Joseph of the British American Security Information Center (BASIC) for her considerable and always timely research assistance. Finally, I want to direct a special world of gratitude to my mentor, Vladimir “Oblomov” Petrovsky (Russian Federation), the distinguished Secretary-General of the Conference on Disarmament, for guiding my path through the often complicated thicket of disarmament affairs.  Albrecht Gero Muth Convenor and Executive Director, Eminent Persons Group August 18, 2000 Click Here to Continue