(Reuters) Small arms deadliest in today's wars - survey

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http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2005/7/12/worldupdates/2005-07-11T215106Z_01_NOOTR_RTRJONC_0_-208988-1&sec=Worldupdates

Small arms deadliest in today's wars - survey

By Irwin Arieff
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Most victims of war die these days from small arms like machine guns, pistols and rifles, making them the true weapons of mass destruction in the world today, according to a new report released on Monday.

The report, the latest annual small arms survey conducted by researchers at the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies, concludes that conflict deaths due to small arms have been vastly underreported in the past.

The number of direct victims of such weapons likely totaled 80,000 to 108,000 for 2003, for example, compared to earlier estimates by other researchers of 27,000 to 51,000 deaths from small arms that year.

The undercounting is due mainly to a paucity of hard data and an over-reliance by analysts on estimates based on government and media accounts of wars, "which are often inaccurate," according to the 2005 survey.

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