Sixty people are killed by gunfire every hour, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said in a speech Monday, noting that the vast majority of victims are women and children.Roughly half a million people are killed each year by small caliber firearms, Annan said at the first-ever UN conference against small arms and light weapons, who called the deadly weapons "a global scourge."
Annan said progress in stemming the flow of such weapons has been particularly slow in countries in North Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia.
His remarks were made Monday at a conference aimed at reviewing progress in stopping illegal gun proliferation. The meeting was organized by the International Action Network on Small Arms, which groups 500 non-government organizations in more than 100 countries.
All rights reserved. Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.
Quick Links
SpaceWar
Search SpaceWar
Subscribe To SpaceWar Express
