The display was held by Amnesty International and Oxfam to start their joint campaign for tougher legislation to curb the export of small arms around the world, which they described as out of control. The charities said that every government, especially the most powerful ones, had a responsibility to control the global trade. Their report Shattered Lives said that last year there were more than 40 armed conflicts. The sale of small arms such as the Kalashnikov — “the godfather of assault rifles” — needed to be brought under much stricter control. There were about 639 million small arms in the world produced by more than 1,135 companies in at least 98 countries, the report said. “Eight million new weapons are produced every year,” it added. The charities said that the proliferation in the export of small arms had increased since the September 11 terrorist attacks.

They called for an arms trade treaty, like the Landmines Treaty, by 2006 to prevent arms exports to countries where they were likely to be used to “commit grave violations of international human rights”.

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