Small Arms Survey on Air-Drop of Weapons in Syria, Yemen by Implication, UN Peacekeeping Questions

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, June 1 -- With the 2015 Small Arms Survey the topic of a UN press conference on June 1, Inner City Press rushed there think that those who breathlessly covered the Arms Trade Treaty, or the flow of weapons into Syria, Ukraine and other hot spots, would be there as well. But when the time for question and answer came, only Inner City Press (and the Free UN Coalition for Access) asked questions, about Burundi, the DR Congo and Yemen.

  Yemen is the question which drew an on camera answer, not directly criticizing Saudi Arabia's air-drop of weapon to any tribe that says it wants to fight the Houthis but doing so by analogy, noting that a full crate of weapons air-dropped to the Kurds to defend Kobane were collected, in fact, by ISIS.

  Off camera, Inner City Press gleaned more information about how a government like Burundi's can use service in UN peacekeeping missions as a way to get weapons, and then use them domestically. A follow up report on diversion of weapons for “peacekeeping” is coming - watch this site.