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114 联合国关注轻武器非法交易
UN Attempts to Defuse Concerns Over Small Arms
Breck Ardery
United Nations
5 Jul 2001 19:09 UTC
United Nations officials are concerned about an apparent 1)misunderstanding over next week's conference on the problem of 2)small arms and light weapons.
The two-week conference, which opens Monday, will focus on the 3)illegal trade in small arms, a trade that U.N. studies show is now 4)fueling most internal conflicts in nations around the world.
But some gun-owner advocates, mostly in the United States, suspect the conference is an effort to develop international controls on gun ownership by American citizens. The United Nations has received at least 100 angry letters and e-mails, some of them so strongly worded that they were turned over to security officials for 5)evaluation.
But the U.N. under-secretary-general for disarmament, Jayantha Dhanapala, says the letter-writers have a serious misunderstanding about the purpose of the conference. "Fundamentally, the conference that starts next week will be looking at the 6)proliferation of small arms and light weapons in an international context that has helped 7)exacerbate conflict," he says. "We are not looking at the question of 8)domestic gun control as far as crime prevention is concerned, and the legal ownership of guns will not be 9)interfered with."
Mr. Dhanapala also pointed out that the National Rifle Association of the United States as well as gun-owner 10)advocacy groups from other countries will be participating in the conference as officially recognized "non-governmental organizations."
Conference organizers are hoping the U.N. General Assembly will approve a program of action to control the 10)illicit manufacture, transfer, and 12)circulation of small arms and light weapons. Of particular concern are arms brokers, some of whom continue to provide weapons to combatants even after international arms sanctions have been imposed.
(1) misunderstanding[mIsQndE5stAndIN]n.误会, 误解
(2) small arms n.轻武器
(3) illegal[I5li:^(E)l]adj.违法的, 不合规定的
(4) fuel[fju:El]n.燃料vt.加燃料, 供以燃料
(5) evaluation[IvAljJ5eIF(E)n]n.估价, 评价, 赋值
(6) proliferation[prEJ9lIfE`reIFEn]n.增殖, 分芽繁殖
(7) exacerbate[ek5sAsEbeIt]vt.恶化, 增剧, 使加剧
(8) domestic[dE5mestIk]adj.家庭的, 国内的
(9) interfere[IntE5fIE(r)]vi.干涉, 干预
(10) advocacy[5AdvEkEsI]n.拥护, 鼓吹, 辩护
(11) illicit[I5lIsIt]adj.违法的
(12) circulation[s:kjJ5leIF(E)n]n.循环, 流通, 发行额
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