The Fiji government has been urged to urgently review its laws allowing for the manufacture of arms and ammunition in the country.
The Fiji Times says the call has come from the Pacific Concerns Resource Centre as its spokesperson, Adi Ema Tagicakibau, attends a conference on arms and ammunition in New York this week.
Adi Ema says for a nation that has suffered greatly from the illegal use of arms and is still healing, Fiji must do all it can to stop the flow of guns into the wrong hands or across borders.
She says military weapons still at large in Fiji after the May 2000 coup could be a source of insecurity.
Adi Ema says the PCRC's concern stems specifically from Part 2 of the Arms and Ammunition Act which allows for the manufacture and export of such goods after obtaining a licence from the minister responsible.
She says it is shocking that Fiji's MPs could allow such a Bill to pass without consideration of its long term social, economic and political costs to the nation.
