UN General Assembly
2000

under way with the signing, by the heads of State or Government, on 24 February at Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, of the protocol regarding this Council and the mutual assistance pact. In the area of security there is a plan to organize a joint military exercise for the peacekeeping operations of the armed forces of the States of the subregion. As for the other contributor to instability — the proliferation of small arms and light weapons — the member States held a subregional conference on this topic in N'Djamena in October 1999. A number of measures were advocated; among them, we might mention the project of “arms for development”, which was initiated by Canada and certain donor countries — a project that is intended to set up micro-projects to help those who turn in their arms. For the time being this project involves the areas along the borders of Cameroon, the Central African Republic and Chad. In this connection, a mission of evaluation visited the countries concerned in July 2000. The initiative is only