The AK47 is the weapon of choice for
guerrilla fighters world-wide,
with an estimated one million of the
Kalashnikov rifles in every-day
use. Its reliability and ease-of-use has
made it the most widely used
and produced small arm over the last
century. BBC World Service sets
out to find how AK47s are distributed and
who are the people who use
the weapon in a series called My AK47,
going out on The World Today
from Sunday 4 December.

Series producer Leana Hosea says: "The
personal accounts given by
people who use, sell and distribute AK47s
give listeners an insight
into how the weapon has become a reality
of life in many parts of the
world. One interview is with an
AK47-equipped child-soldier in Sierra
Leone. According to the UN there are an
estimated 300,000 children
involved in armed conflict and nearly
half of them are in Africa.
Sangeba was only 12 when his mother was
beaten and his father killed
in front of him by rebels who forced him
to become a child soldier.
In another interview, an illegal arms
dealer in Sri Lanka reveals how
it's routine to obtain Ak47s and other
small arms, such as grenades
from the army, air force and police."

The series also includes interviews with
a UN weapons investigator, a
guerilla fighter in Columbia, a
rehabilitation worker from Sierre
Leone and with Vybz Kartel, the Jamaican
dancehall star who sings
about AK47s and violence in the country's
capital.

The series will run on The World Today on
BBC World Service, going out
at 2300 GMT and through the night from 4
to 8 December 2005.
(Mike Barraclough, dxldyahoogroup)

dxAce
Michigan
USA