VZCZCXRO6817
PP RUEHAST RUEHDBU RUEHFL RUEHLA RUEHMRE RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSK RUEHSR
DE RUEHVEN #0041/01 0501222
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 191222Z FEB 09 ZDK
FM USMISSION USOSCE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6231
INFO RUCNOSC/ORG FOR SECURITY CO OP IN EUR COLLECTIVE
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0693
RUEHUNV/USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA 1248
RHMFISS/CDR USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE
RHMFISS/CDRUSAREUR HEIDELBERG GE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHDLCNE/CINCUSNAVEUR LONDON UK
RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC
RUEASWA/DTRA ALEX WASHINGTON DC
RUESDT/DTRA-OSES DARMSTADT GE
RHMFIUU/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
RUEKJCS/JCS WASHDC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 1188

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 USOSCE 000041 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR VCI/CCA, VCI/NRRC, EUR/RPM, EUR/PRA, EUR/CARC, 
SCA/CEN, SCA/RA, PM/WRA 
JCS FOR J-5 
OSD FOR ISA (PERENYI) 
NSC FOR HAYES 
USUN FOR LEGAL, POL 
EUCOM FOR J-5 
CENTCOM FOR J-5 
UNVIE FOR AC 
GENEVA FOR CD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PARM PREL KCFE OSCE RS XG
SUBJECT: OCE/FSC: BITE THE BULLET--SAFERWORLD REPORTS ON 
SALW DIVERSION 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary.  At the February 18, 2009 Forum for 
Security Cooperation (FSC),  two representatives from 
Saferworld provided an overview of a February 2009 report on 
preventing diversion of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW). 
The report notes the work accomplished by international 
organizations like the OSCE, but recommends additional 
emphasis on assessing the risk of SALW diversion, tracing 
shipments of SALW known to be diverted, and expand programs 
for managing stockpiles of SALW non-military stocks. 
 
¶2. (SBU) In Working Group A, Switzerland offered two minor 
edits to the Food for Thought paper on postponing the 
deadline for submission of Code of Conduct questionnaire. 
The revised document will be released as a Chairman's draft 
decision and discussed at the next WG A, which will be held 
immediately prior to the February 25 FSC. End summary. 
 
Biting the Bullet 
- - - - - - - - - 
 
¶3. (SBU) The FSC met on February 18, 2009 at 0930 in advance 
prior to the joint FSC-PC meeting featuring Russian DFM 
Grushko's presentation on Russia's European Security 
initiative.  The FSC meeting featured presentations by Ms. 
Elizabeth Kirkham and Mr. Bernardo Mariani from the NGO 
Saferworld, which showcased a February 2009 report from the 
joint project "Biting the Bullet" entitled, "Preventing 
Diversion of Small Arms and Light Weapons: Issues and 
Priorities for Strengthening Controls.".  Kirkham led off 
with a brief overview of the report's findings, including the 
need for states to conduct comprehensive assessments on the 
risk of SALW diversions when making licensing decisions; the 
need to improve existing instruments for tracing diverted 
shipments; and the need for better stockpile management. 
Kirkham noted OSCE work; specifically commending last year's 
FSC decision on preventing destabilizing transfers of SALW by 
air as significant and encouraging development.  Kirkham 
concluded that efforts to address small arms diversion should 
be integrated with wider efforts to implement all aspects of 
the UN Program of Action on SALW and associated regional and 
multilateral agreements. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Mariani followed up by outlining concrete steps the 
FSC could take to combat and prevent the diversion of SALW. 
Mariani saw considerable scope for launching discussions in 
the OSCE for pre-licensing risk assessment, development of a 
risk assessment check list, and exploring avenues of 
cooperation among participating States and others.   He said 
the OSCE could support the International Marking and Tracing 
Instrument (ITI) and urged the OSCE states to provide 
enhanced reports to the UN under ITI, including information 
on tracing requests made and received.  Furthermore, Mariani 
called for the OSCE to extend its focus on stockpiles 
management from military stores to other authorized stocks, 
such as those of police and border guards.  Finally, he said 
that all these efforts could be wrapped up into one Best 
Practice Guide (BPG) on preventing diversion of SALW, which 
would include existing BPGs, fill in gaps were necessary, and 
a systematic template for diversion risk assessment. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Finland (Kangasta) and Germany (Kantorczyk ) as well 
as the Head of the Group of Friends on SALW 
(Schweizer--Germany) and FSC Coordinator for SALW Projects 
 
USOSCE 00000041  002 OF 002 
 
 
(Hartnell--UK) intervened in general support of the 
presentations.  Schweizer noted that the report followed 
closely with the work conducted by the FSC, and asked whether 
the speakers saw a need to move from current formats of BPGs 
to more normative documents.  Hartnell used the opportunity 
to request donors for the SALW project in Belarus. 
 
ASRC Dates 
- - - - - - 
 
¶6. (SBU) Following the presentation, the French Chair 
(Simonet) noted that a draft letter from the FSC to the CPC 
agreeing to the dates of the next Annual Security Review 
Conference (ASRC), 23-24 June, 2009 is currently under 
silence.  Participating States have until February 20, 2009 
at 6:00 PM to comment on the letter. 
 
Extension of Deadline for CoC Questionnaire Submission 
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
 
¶7. (SBU) In an abbreviated Working Group A, pS discussed the 
German-Austrian FFT extending the deadline for pS to submit 
their responses to the Code of Conduct questionnaire. 
Switzerland proposed two minor to the preamble and expressed 
support for the decision as long as all pS intend to use the 
updated questionnaire for their 2009 submissions.  Russia 
(Ulyanov) said that Russia would support the decision, but 
since one pS had already submitted its information for 2009 
and others were already working on their submissions based on 
the current questionnaire, pS must consider 2009 a 
"transition year"--that is, pS should have the option of 
using either the old or new questionnaire when preparing 
their submissions.  Germany (Schweizer) said he would take al 
comments into consideration and provide the Chair with a new 
draft for distribution next week as a Chairman's draft. 
Ulyanov also reported that he anticipated that Moscow would 
provide him with their edits for the updated questionnaire 
next week.  He noted that most of the recommended changes 
would be technical in nature and would not change the 
document's character.  The Chair announced that WG A will 
meet on February 25 at 9:45 am with the intent of adopting 
the revised decision on extending the CoC submission 
deadline. 
SCOTT