17 March 2008
analysis
Nairobi — Viktor Bout. His name has a sharp, staccato to it, much like the sound of an AK-47 shot. Dubbed the "Merchant of Death" by former British foreign office minister Peter Hain, the countries the Russian national has reputedly sold arms to - Liberia, Sierra Leone, Angola, Congo and others - read like a list of Africa's worst killing fields.
The UN and international human-rights activists say that those arms, obtained illegally or at rock bottom prices from rusting Soviet and Eastern bloc stockpiles, have been used to commit some of the most horrendous crimes against humanity in recent times, in hotspots as far apart as Afghanistan and Angola.
Last week, Bout's own date with destiny began when he was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand, while attempting "to procure weapons for Colombia's FARC rebels," according to Thai police.
The leftist FARC (Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia) funds itself through cocaine trading and kidnapping for ransom.
Significantly, Bout was nabbed five days after the Colombian government recovered the computer of a FARC leader Raul Reyes, during the cross-border raid that recently sparked so much tension in Latin America. The weapons to be sold to the organisation, according to Thai media reports, included surface-to-air missile systems such as the one used in the attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner in Mombasa several years ago.
It is such arms trading, extending now over nearly two decades, that made Bout the inspiration for the Hollywood movie, Lords of War starring Nicholas Cage as the arms dealer Yuri Orlov.
Bout is also the main character in a book written by journalists Douglas Farah and Stephen Bruan titled Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes and the Man Who Makes War Possible.
With his arrest, Bout could now face serious charges in several jurisdictions, including much of Europe and the US as well as The Hague. It is instructive, in this respect, that the arrest itself was a joint effort between the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and Interpol in Thailand, the Netherlands, Romania and Denmark.
His prosecution in any jurisdiction will probably be closely followed by many shadowy figures in capitals around the world, including Nairobi, Dar es Salaam and Kampala.
Evidence adduced at his trials could seriously embarrass many highly-placed personalities.
In East Africa, Bout or his associates are said to have been linked to several controversial arms deals, including the sale of junk helicopters to the Uganda People's Defence Forces. Some UN reports have also linked his network to the sale of light arms to Kenyan security forces.
In one confirmed case, reported by The Monitor of Uganda last week, the Russian arms dealer fronted a company called Culworth Investments, which together with an Egyptian national - Sharif Al-Mazrii - tried to sell the UPDF an MI-24 helicopter.
In November 2000, according to The Monitor, Culworth also tried to sell the UPDF Slovakian-made machineguns, but these were rejected because they did not conform to specifications.
Thereupon, a Bout plane, registered in Moldova and bearing registration number ER-75929, reportedly flew the guns from Entebbe to war-torn Liberia.
More significantly, according to the Belgian International Peace Information Service, Bout's various air cargo front companies were used extensively by rogue Ugandan army officers to ship arms into eastern Congo starting from the late 1990s, flying back with cagoes of coltan, diamonds and other precious metals.
It is instructive that some of Bout's front companies - Bukavu Aviation Transport, Air Cess, Centrafrican and Great Lakes Business Company - had Central African-related names.
Dozens of others were registered in the United Arab Emirates, where Bout resided before running home to Russia when international arrest warrants were issued for him.
In the one year between July 1997 and September 1998, Bout is reported to have smuggled an estimated $14 million's worth of weapons into African conflict zones.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, he supplied the MLC (Mouvement de Liberation du Congo) of former Uganda-backed Congolese rebel leader Jean Pierre Bemba, and the RCD (Rassemblement Congolais pour la Democratie) of Wamba Dia Wamba, another leader backed by Uganda.
Several UN expert panel reports and a Ugandan commission of inquiry headed by Justice David Porter, subsequently accused Uganda's top military brass of taking part in looting Congolese minerals and arming different Congolese warring factions.
Top military officers, including Maj Gen James Kazini, Maj Gen Kahinda Otafiire, and the late Brig Noble Mayombo, then head of military intelligence, among others, were cited by the Porter commission as taking part in the plunder. The officers, however, vehemently denied the accusations and some were later cleared of wrongdoing.
Last week, Uganda's Defence Minister Crispus Kiyonga categorically denied any links with Bout, saying that Uganda does not purchase its military hardware from individuals.
"I have no comment about Viktor Bout," Mr Kiyonga told The Monitor. "Uganda does not deal with or purchase military hardware from individuals. It is a state-to-state arrangement."
More such denials are likely to come from security agents in countries like Kenya, where Bout is said to have conducted business through intermediaries. While the Russian's own links with Kenyan security agents are still obscure, it is instructive that one of his key associates in the region was Sanjivan Ruprah, a Kenyan of Asian origin who on June 4, 2001 was listed as one of 130 persons banned by the UN Security Council for their role in fuelling the decade-long civil war in Sierra Leone.
The list, which included Liberian Charles Taylor - who is now facing trial at The Hague for crimes against humanity - has since been revised by the UN with some names and key players being dropped.
In February 2002, Ruprah was himself arrested by Belgian police and charged in Brussels with criminal association and travelling on a false British passport.
According to a report by the UN Panel of Experts dated December 20, 2000, whose findings led to the imposition of limited sanctions on Liberia, Ruprah was so well connected with the Charles Taylor regime that he frequently travelled on a Liberian diplomatic passport in the name of Samir M. Nasr.
The passport identified him as Liberia's Deputy Commissioner for Maritime Affairs.
According to the UN panel, "In November 1999, Ruprah was authorised in writing by the Liberian Minister of Transport to act as the 'Global Civil Aviation agent worldwide' for the Liberian Civil Aviation Regulatory Authority, and to 'investigate and regularise the ... Liberian Civil Aviation register.'
"The apparent aim of Ruprah's investigation was to 'suspend and/or cancel the registration of those aircraft which have had illegal certificates issued outside the knowledge of the government.'"
Coincidentally, the UN Panel investigating the violations of UN embargoes on Unita in Angola had between July 1997 and October 1998 identified 37 arms flights, all with false end-user certificates and false flight schedules, by Liberian-registered planes operated by Viktor Bout.
"The murder and mayhem of Unita in Angola, the RUF in Sierra Leone and other rebel groups in the Congo would not have been as terrible without Bout's operations," said Peter Hain subsequently.
Significantly, Bout's first known major deal was in Somalia in 1993, where his air cargo company, Transavia, was contracted by the Belgian army.
Some analysts say that circumstantial evidence points to a Kenya-Bout link. The mid-1990s, which saw Bout rise as an international arms trafficker, also saw the Kenyan security forces being equipped with the AK-47 rifle and their various Chinese-designed derivatives.
Prior to this, Kenyan units were largely equipped with European-made guns such as the Belgian G3, with elite elements such as paratroopers and crack paramilitary units like the GSU using Israeli-made weapons such as the Uzi.
Whether Bout or his colleagues were involved in the Kenyan "conversion" is, however, still a mystery, but could emerge in the forthcoming trials.
Internationally, intelligence agencies are said to have kept Bout on their radar for years, as his operation shipped everything from rifles to tanks and attack helicopters to various combatants.
At the height of his operation, Bout was said to own a fleet comprising between 40 and 60 planes registered under a dozen front companies. He also employed at least 300 people, and worked with a network of associates spread across the globe.
His recent arrest does not inspire confidence among international human-rights activists. Despite the grim nature of his work, many are convinced that Bout often enjoyed some level of protection or acquiescence from Western intelligence, especially when he supplied arms to combatants who were in pursuit of strategic objectives similar to those of the West.
For example, one of Bout's front companies - Air Bas - was in 2003 contracted by the US government to fly military supply missions in Iraq, despite outstanding arrest warrants against him. The issue was even taken up by US Senator Russ Feingold in 2004.
A US army spokeswoman is then reported to have said that the situation in Iraq was fluid, and they did not have any control over who the main contractors were sub-contracting.
Whether these interests will want to see their dirty linen aired in public, says the rights activists, remains to be seen.
Bout was reputedly a "very democratic" arms-dealer. He is said to have liberally dealt with both sides in a conflict, in the process shipping incredible amounts of weaponry.
His main concern seems to have been money, and not ideology. In May 2006, for example, when 200,000 AK-47 assault rifles allegedly went missing in transit from Bosnia to Iraq, one of Bout's airlines was the carrier.
At various times, some of Bout's shadow companies also did business with the UN itself, which had issued an arrest warrant for him!
Apart from African conflicts, according to the online encyclopaedia, Wikipedia, Bout and his associates also liberally supplied weapons to Afghanistan warlords and the Taliban in exchange for drugs, as well as to countless rebel groups in Latin America, including FARC.
Between 1992 and 1995, according to the site, the arms dealer made an alleged $50 million from supplying several Afghan groups, enabling him to globalise his operations. His Taliban connection made him a high value target for US intelligence after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack.
Born in Dushanbe in Tajikistan in the former USSR on January 13, 1967, Bout is said to enjoy especially good contacts in the Russian military, where he served in various capacities until his retirement in 1993.
During his subsequent dealings, he also reportedly built an incredibly powerful network of friends and political contacts, many of whom could be seriously embarrassed if he were to face an open trial.
The fact that Bout, who uses at least half-a-dozen passports and speaks more than six languages, was able to travel to Thailand shortly before his arrest is itself telling, given that the UN had already banned him from international travel and frozen his foreign bank accounts.
Bout's military background could also apparently serve him well in any legal battle. His dealings, according to Wikipedia, "were careful and complicated, making it hard for authorities to assess, for instance, which planes are his and which are operating illegally."
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The East African. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
