By Fiona Forde
Zimbabwe is not only stockpiling modern weapons, but is also circumventing sanctions by exporting arms to the US via Eastern Europe, according to a report that is due to be released this week.
The International Peace Information Service (Ipis), a Belgian-based research hub, says this state of play is a good example of why the UN-proposed Arms Trade Treaty needs to be as comprehensive as possible to stem the flow of weapons into Zimbabwe.
The report says that throughout last year, when the political climate was most
volatile, it tracked shipments of arms in and out of the country, which not only pose a threat to Zimbabweans, but outline the dubious nature of arms deals that continue to take place with a country that is heavily sanctioned.
In the space of 48 hours last August, 53 tons of ammunition were allegedly flown from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Harare by Enterprise World Airways, aboard a Boeing-707-3B4C aircraft registered as 9Q-CRM, say Brian Johnson-Thomas and Peter Danssaert, authors of the report.
The first shipment on August 21 contained 32 tons of 7.62x54mm cartridges, according to the UN's Groups of Experts on the DRC. A second shipment, which they say arrived two days later, contained 20 tons of 7.62x39mm cartridges, the kind
of ammunition used in AK-47s.
The ammunition was received in Zimbabwe four months after a separate and controversial arms consignment from China was turned away at Durban on the so-called ship of shame in April last year, only to be flown into the country a month later from Angola, the report also claims.
Despite denials from Luanda and Beijing, an employee of the state-owned
Zimbabwe Defence Industry (ZDI) in Harare told Ipis in June that the shipment, which contained mortar bombs, rockets and rounds of ammunition, had arrived in the country - something that Information Minister Bright Matonga also suggested in May when he told a TV-recorded panel discussion that "the shipment is already in Zimbabwe".
Matonga could not be reached for comment this week. "Zimbabwe has no national legislation on the import, export or transit of arms and ammunition that conforms to international stands," the report's authors say, suggesting the country's borders are
dangerously pervious and proof of what happens when there is no arms treaty in place.
All does not have to be lost in the absence of a treaty, Guy Lamb of the Institute of Security Studies (ISS) argues. "Illicit and corrupt arms trading, as well as arms transfers to conflict zones or countries where governments are responsible for human rights abuses, can be restricted in Africa by more comprehensive and consistent implementation of existing regional arms control agreements at the national level," the head of the arms management programme at the ISS points out. "Examples include the SADC firearms control protocol and the Nairobi small arms and light weapons
protocol.
" However, what could happen and what does are very different things. The researchers also tracked the shipment of 1 349 stripped MAG58 machine gun bodies, 2 051 barrels and various other machinegun parts from Harare to Podgorica airport in Montenegro in February last year, which they claim later found their way to the US in a roundabout deal that breached the sanctions imposed by the government of George W Bush.
According to the airway bill, or shipping document, the consignment was dispatched by the ZDI to its Montenegran counterparts, a deal they say was brokered by the Swiss-based company BT International.
That company is run by Heinrich Thomet, the Swiss man who appeared on the US arms trafficking "Watch List" three years ago. Earlier this year, during a visit to the
Montenegro Defence Industry, the authors of the report were informed "that the machineguns supplied from Zimbabwe had been bought for refurbishment" and "that the overhauled machinegun parts, with the exception of the barrels and receivers" were later shipped on to the United States in a transaction that was also facilitated by BT International.
An investigation into the Trans-Atlantic deal pointed to Ohio Ordnance Works as the recipient of the gun parts, a dealer that supplies the US armed forces and which previously supplied the allied forces in Iraq. Ohio's lawyers were unable to confirm or
deny their dealings with Montenegro and in an e-mail to Ipis last month strongly denied breaching US trade laws, though did not deny importing the shipment from Montenegro.
When contacted by Independent Newspapers, Montenegro's Department of Defence declined to comment. Given that ZDI is a sanctioned company, and has been since 2005, the report suggests the trans-Atlantic deal "may have been to evade US sanctions on Zimbabwean individuals and entities", embargos which prohibit the "direct and indirect imports from Zimbabwe into the US", the report reads.
The authors also note that only two countries voted against pushing ahead with the proposed Arms Trade Treaty at the UN General Assembly last October - the US and Zimbabwe. South Africa voted in favour of it.
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