Eyewitness: Turning guns into art

Sculptors in Mozambique are turning weapons into art

Dominic Nutt, of Christian Aid, writes for CNN about an imaginative decommissioning programme in Mozambique.

MAPUTO, Mozambique -- With a gun trade about to take place, the atmosphere was predictably tense and the participants very nervous.

Sousa, the man with the merchandise, smiled nervously as he talked in hushed tones to Guerra, the man who had come to collect.

The door of Sousa's two-roomed house remained firmly locked thoughout -- he did not want neighbours knowing about his illegal weapons or his past as a guerilla fighter in Mozambique's vicious 17-year civil war.

So the negotiations took place in the dingy half-light provided by the only window.

Sousa, 44, entered another room to return with four AK47s, six clips of ammunition, and an old East European rifle complete with bayonet. All had traces of mud still on them, having been dug up from their hiding place in the bush earlier that day.

The trade then took place, but Sousa did not receive any cash for the guns -- he got a sewing machine.

And Guerra was not a shady arms dealer. He works for a church-based charity -- the Christian Council of Mozambique (CCM) -- which is carrying out its own imaginative decommissioning programme.

Once CCM gets the guns, they are cut up in its compound in Maputo, the Mozambique capital. Then, the bits are handed to a group of local artists who fashion them into sculpture.

Weapons that once had the capacity to kill become animals, birds, or even chairs and coffee tables.

The government supports the scheme, realising that the CCM's "no questions asked" approach allows people to hand over weapons with confidence, where otherwise they would fear prosecution.

A boy relaxes on chairs made from decommissioned automatic weapons

In the seven years that CCM's "guns into ploughshares" programme has been in operation, it has collected and destroyed more than 200,000 guns, grenades and rocket launchers.

The artists' extraordinary work, which has succeeded in doing what the government and the United Nations have previously failed, is touring the world.

It has already appeared at the U.N.'s headquarters in New York and from January 18 will be in London at the Oxo Tower.

Bishop Dinis Sengulane, chairman of CCM's peace and reconciliation committee and a driving force behind the project told me: "I say to people that sleeping with a gun in your bedroom is like sleeping with a snake -- one day it will turn round and bite you.

"We tell people we are not disarming you. We are transforming your guns into ploughshares, so you can cultivate your land and get your daily bread."

He added: "We are transforming them into sewing machines so you can make clothes. We are transforming them into bicycles so you don't have to spend money travelling to work and so you can collect the fruits of your fields to sell.

"The idea is to transform the instruments of death and destruction into instruments of peace and of production and cooperation with others."

Certainly, the problem being addressed by the project is a huge one.

When the war between the Marxist Frelimo government, which replaced Portuguese colonial rule in 1975, and Renamo rebels, backed by South Africa and the U.S., ended in 1992, the U.N. estimated that there a staggering seven million guns all over Mozambique.

Part of the cease-fire deal was for U.N. troops to disarm both sides.

In reality, however, most weapons were buried in secret caches but the CCM operation, which receives financial backing from the British-based charity Christian Aid, has helped break the secrecy.

Its 12-strong team works with limited resources, it has only two small trucks which break down frequently and a single electrically powered cutting wheel with which to make the weapons safe.

Guns are used to make both instruments and sculptures

But the workers know from first-hand experience just how crucial their task is. Several have been car-jacked in recent weeks and one of CCM's senior staff was shot twice in the shoulder when robbers took his car.

Sousa, for one, is very pleased they continue. This is the third time he has exchanged weapons for sewing machines, and together with his brother and an uncle has set up a cottage industry making dresses which sell at the local market.

"I am so happy now there is peace," says Sousa, who spent eight years with the Renamo rebels as a mine laying engineer after being kidnapped at gunpoint from his village.

"And I thank CCM for these machines," he adds. "Without them I would have been forced into banditry to live and to support my wife.

"I used to sell fruit and vegetables on the streets but often we'd have nothing to eat for days. Now we eat well every day."