Yemen stems weapons trade

SANA'A, Sep. 23 (Saba) - Interior Minister Mutahar Rashad al-Masri
said on Tuesday that Yemen will never allow weapons trade to be back
after it was prohibited since June 2008.

Al-Masri was quoted by the state-run 26sep.net as warning that the
Ministry would crack down any arms merchants who sell secretly or in
public any pieces of weapons.

"The Ministry don't allow the death trade to appear again after we
took an unprecedented step enabled to shut down the arm trade
markets", he added

Yemen's efforts at internal control started after 9/11 with the new
international focus on terrorism. The Yemeni government embarked
upon a widely known weapons buyback program, hoping to disarm the
tribes and thus neutralize the threat they posed to government
control, in a non-confrontational manner.

Yemeni authorities have the closure of all arms markets pending the
introduction of a new licencing system in a bid to control the trade
in a country with one of the highest rates of private gun ownership
in the world.

The Interior Ministry will be responsible for forming committees to
draw up lists of all gun shops and weapons markets and their owners
will then be required to apply for licences.

Yemen has an estimated 60 million firearms in private hands, roughly
three for every man, woman and child.

Gun ownership has long been seen as an essential part of Yemeni
culture.