March 22 seminar: Gun Wars and Drug Deaths in South Asia with Binalakshmi Nepram

South Asia Partnership Canada
and the
CPCC Small Arms Working Group
are pleased to invite you to a lunch time seminar on:

GUN WARS AND DRUG DEATHS IN SOUTH ASIA:

A NARRATIVE OF ARMED ETHNIC CONFLICT,
NARCO-TRAFFICKING AND
THE SPREAD OF SMALL ARMS
IN NORTH EAST INDIA

with Binalakshmi Nepram

Date: Monday March 22nd, 2004
Where: 1 Nicholas Street, Suite 1200, Ottawa
Time: 12.00 – 2.00 pm

Binalakshmi Nepram, a small arms expert, will talk about how the proliferation of small arms in the North East regions of India have exacerbated ethnic conflict and narcotics trafficking. She will discuss the responses of governments in South Asia to the UN Biennial Conference on Small Arms and Light Weapons and will highlight emerging civil society initiatives on small arms in the region.

Ms Nepram is a writer, peace activist, and a Research Scholar at the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India. She has been researching and working on the small arms problem in her home country of India for many years. Her work focuses on looking at armed ethnic insurgencies, narcotics-trafficking and small arms proliferation in North East India, Myanmar and Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh. Having been born and raised in a region experiencing armed conflict, the Manipur state in North East India, her work is a personal, life long commitment.

In her recently published book, South Asia’s Fractured Frontier: Armed Conflict, Narcotics & Small Arms Proliferation in India’s North East, she aimed to raise government and civil society awareness about the gravity of the problems caused by small arms proliferation and misuse. A committed civil society voice for peace and security, she is also a firm believer that youth and women have a powerful role to play in bringing about a more peaceful world. Through her research, and writing she lives her dreams of building a world that is free from gun and drug deaths.

Ms.Nepram is also a member of the South Asia Small Arms Network, and the International Action Network for Small Arms and has recently taken up an appointment with Saferworld to research on small arms in the Indian context.

For further information please contact Lynne Griffiths-Fulton at lgriffiths@ploughshares.ca

and to RSVP, please contact: Isabelle Valois at ivalois@sapcanada.org