GEN. QUAINOO: Mmh-hmm.

INTERVIEWER: -- and you -- in the Army of Ghana? Tell me, when did you start?

GEN. QUAINOO: Oh, I had served in the Army for 35 years and retired five years ago. And during this period I had used weapons of various dimensions in various theaters of conflict. I had first served in the Congo in 1960s and then my last so to speak, before I retired, was in Liberia. As you might have known, I was the first commander of in Liberia.

INTERVIEWER: And that -- was that during the civil war in Liberia?

GEN. QUAINOO: Yeah, that was during the civil war in Liberia.

INTERVIEWER: What -- tell me the years, the years that you were in Liberia.

GEN. QUAINOO: Oh, I was in Liberia in 1990.

INTERVIEWER: 1990?

GEN. QUAINOO: Yes. As I said, I was the first commander --

INTERVIEWER: Okay.

GEN. QUAINOO: -- in Liberia.

INTERVIEWER: What was the situation like in Liberia when you arrived there?

GEN. QUAINOO: Well, when -- before we arrived, we landed in the free port of Monrovia. The city, as you know, is very chaotic. But there was fighting between the INPFL and the forces of Mr. Justella at the time we landed. So we landed as a forced landing, you know.

INTERVIEWER: So as a peacekeeping --

GEN. QUAINOO: Yeah.

INTERVIEWER: -- force, how did the presence of small arms there affect your work?

GEN. QUAINOO: Oh, I think very adversely. My experience have been that the countries that we have had in Africa, the countries that we have had in our subregion, West Africa, wouldn't have taken such dimensions, such bloody dimensions, without the easy accessibility and misuse of more arms.

INTERVIEWER: Check my frame. Great. In -- should we talk about Central Africa, West -- how should I term the region in Africa?

GEN. QUAINOO: Well, I know much about West Africa subregion but then you can --

INTERVIEWER: Okay. Would you -- what are the key problems that caused the demand for small arms? Is it crime, is it poverty, resource competition?

GEN. QUAINOO: No, I think mostly in Africa, and especially in Africa, the demand for small arms comes about because of underprivileged class feeling that they have been underprivileged not because of a natural order because of social injustice, because of human injustice, because of mismanagement, corruption, and with a feeling that with the support of weapons they can bring about a change in the status quo that demand increases for small arms in order to effect a change.

INTERVIEWER: Do you believe that these issues have been present now for many years but perhaps the small arms have been more available more cheaply in recent years?

GEN. QUAINOO: Yes.

INTERVIEWER: Do you see a connection between the number of small arms and the level of violence?

GEN. QUAINOO: Certainly. I actually retired from the military having seen the futility of using weapons as an answer to a political problem. I'm now an Executive Director of what I call the Center for Conflict Resolution and the mission of this organization is to promote peace in West Africa subregion.

INTERVIEWER: right now --

GEN. QUAINOO: Yeah --

INTERVIEWER: -- I want to -- it's very important, but I want to ignore the airplane --

GEN. QUAINOO: The light -- mmh-hmm.

INTERVIEWER: -- that's going to make it not usable --

GEN. QUAINOO: Yeah, okay.

INTERVIEWER: -- so I want to get back to that --

GEN. QUAINOO: Uh-hah.

INTERVIEWER: -- at that point as soon as it's passed.

GEN. QUAINOO: Mmh-hmm.

INTERVIEWER: I know you want lunch, too, so --

GEN. QUAINOO: Yeah. [Laughs.]

INTERVIEWER: -- that's why ---- as you were saying --

GEN. QUAINOO: Yes.

INTERVIEWER: -- before about when you retired from the military, so --

GEN. QUAINOO: Yes. I was saying that I've seen the futility of trying to use military means as an answer to political problems. I have seen it in the Congo that became Zaire and have become Congo again. I have seen it in Liberia and since my retirement from the military, what I did was to establish a place called the Center for Conflict Resolution. It's an organization that is dedicated to the promotion of peace in Ghana and in the West African subregion by trying to develop a constituency that is devoted and committed to the resolution of conflicts through peaceful means, through dialogue, through negotiation, and not through the use of force.

INTERVIEWER: What do you see the role of NGOs --

GEN. QUAINOO: Uh-huh --

INTERVIEWER: -- I mean, it's a relatively new development.

GEN. QUAINOO: Yes.

INTERVIEWER: I would think that the force of NGOs such as your own and the ones that are meeting here playing a role in -- do you they help governments put issues on the table?

GEN. QUAINOO: Oh, certainly. The aim is to about civil society.

First of all, our intention here is to build up our own capabilities. We have to credible. We have to sound convincing to our respective governments. So what we intend doing is to get as much as facts and figures as possible about what have been done already by orders in the field of arms control and our experiences in our subregion to convince our own governments to improve legislation in respect of importation of weapons, the way they use the weapons, they way they dispose of weapons, the way they store weapons, because weapons have been leading a lot of criminal activity in our African society. So we want to build and build and focus a capacity in order to effect policy change.

INTERVIEWER: How do you go about curbing these issues, curbing the disuse, the demand and the disuse of these weapons?

GEN. QUAINOO: Well, demand -- I had already told you. People simply feel that their condition of abject poverty is not due to any other cause but through the abuse of those who are in leadership position. We believe that if we advocate for good governments and good democratic governments, if we advocate for respect for human rights, the rule of law, social justice, if we are able to build up a constituency committed to these and try to policy change, attitude changes, to democracy and respect for human rights. I think it will lessen the demand for weapons as a instrument of political change.

INTERVIEWER: You mentioned before in our conversation outside the economic aspects of triggers for conflict, competition for or . Do you see an economic base to any of these conflicts that are fought between rebel groups or governments and rebel groups?

GEN. QUAINOO: Well, you see, commodities have become one of the factors. In Sierra Leone and in Liberia, timber concessions and diamond and other minerals have been at the core of the conflict in, for example, Sierra Leone. As you noticed, the rebel in Sierra Leone today have all moved to the diamond area and are still controlling the diamond areas. So you will discover that it is easy accessibility to these commodities that promote the ability of rebels, for example, to purchase weapons and to further their war effort.

INTERVIEWER: That's all that I've got.

GEN. QUAINOO: Mmh-hmm.

INTERVIEWER: Is there anything else that you would like to add to that?

GEN. QUAINOO: Well, I really want to say that our participation in this conference in Toronto is very useful. It will improve our capability as I'm saying to -- convincing to our own government. What we want to do is to go back to our respective regions and then organize conferences to sensitize others and build up a constituency towards the work for arms control in West African subregion.