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Africa: Arms & Air Transport
AfricaFocus Bulletin
May 25, 2009 (090525)
(Reposted from sources cited below)
Editor's Note
"Air cargo companies involved in illicit or destabilizing arms
transfers to African conflict zones have also been repeatedly
contracted to deliver humanitarian aid and support peacekeeping
operations, according to a report released today by the Stockholm
International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The report reveals
that 90 per cent of the air cargo companies identified in arms
trafficking-related reports have also been used ... to transport
humanitarian aid, peacekeepers and peacekeeping equipment." - SIPRI
The 74-page report released by SIPRI on May 12 provides extensive
documentation on air transport companies related to conflicts in
six African countries and on the parallel involvement of these
companies in humanitarian aid and peacekeeping contracts. It also
proposes measures to track and sanction such companies, with an
emphasis on the potential role of the European Commission.
This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains excerpts from a press release,
the executive summary of the report, and chapter 3, with data
related to past conflicts in Angola, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, and
to continuing conflicts in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Somalia, and Sudan.
For information on a related U.S.-based campaign, targeting mineral
exports from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in particular,
see http://www.raisehopeforcongo.org/resources,
http://allafrica.com/stories/200905150866.html,
and http://brownback.senate.gov/public/press/record.cfm?id=311956
U.S. Senators Sam Brownback (R-KS), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Russ
Feingold (D-WI) introduced the Congo Conflict Minerals Act of 2009
in Congress in April.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Note from the Editor
Pan-Africanist activist and commentator Tajudeen Abdul Raheem has
been killed in an auto accident in Nairobi. He and his multifaceted
contributions will be sorely missed. For more details see
"Tajudeen Abdul Raheem: a giant is lost on African Liberation Day"
by Firoze Manji Tributes are pouring in to Pambazuka News from
around Africa and around the World.
http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/56535
++++++++++++++++++++++end editor's note+++++++++++++++++++++++
Same air cargo companies deliver both humanitarian aid and weapons,
says SIPRI
Press Release - May 12, 2009
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute -
http://www.sipri.org
Further information: Stephanie Blenckner Communications Officer
Phone: +46 8 655 97 47 E-mail: [email protected]
Further details Contact Hugh Griffiths +46 (0)73 339 7474, +46
(0)8 655 9781 or email: [email protected] Mark Bromley +46 (0)70
845 6032, +46 (0)8 655 9735 or email: [email protected].
(Stockholm, 12 May 2009) Air cargo companies involved in illicit or
destabilizing arms transfers to African conflict zones have also
been repeatedly contracted to deliver humanitarian aid and support
peacekeeping operations, according to a report released today by
the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
The report reveals that 90 per cent of the air cargo companies
identified in arms trafficking-related reports have also been used
by major UN agencies, EU and NATO member states, defence
contractors and some of the world's leading NGOs to transport
humanitarian aid, peacekeepers and peacekeeping equipment. In some
cases, air cargo companies are delivering both aid and weapons to
the same conflict zones. Entitled 'Air Transport and Destabilizing
Commodity Flows', the report shows how air cargo carriers involved
in humanitarian aid and peacekeeping operations have also
transported a range of other conflict-sensitive goods such as
cocaine, diamonds, coltan and other precious minerals.
The report also outlines some EU-centred solutions which can change
the behaviour of some companies and put others out of business.
According to Hugh Griffiths, one of the report's co-authors, 'The
problems have been recognized by the EU, now it is a question of
selecting from the available options and coming together as a
community with coordinated measures.' ...
'A coordinated response by the EU and the humanitarian aid
community could require companies to chose between transporting
arms or aid to conflict zones while air safety enforcement could
put hard core arms dealers out of business,' said Mark Bromley,
coauthor of the report. 'Our research shows that companies named in
arms traffickingrelated reports have poor safety records. Safety
regulations represent their Achilles heel, and can do to them what
tax evasion charges did to Al Capone.'
Air Transport and Destabilizing Commodity Flows
Hugh Griffiths and Mark Bromley
SIPRI Policy Paper No. 24
Executive summary
Air transportation has played a key role in fuelling the war
economies that have devastated much of Africa in recent decades. It
is instrumental in the transfer of small arms and light weapons
(SALW) as well as in the extraction and transfer of precious
minerals, metals and hydrocarbons. Air transportation actors are
also important facilitators of illicit flows of illegal narcotics
and tobacco destined for European, North American and Middle
Eastern markets. At the same time, those air cargo carriers that
have been reportedly involved in these commodity flows that have
been so destabilizing are also enmeshed in humanitarian aid, peace
support, stability operations and defence logistics supply chains
of United Nations agencies, European Union (EU) and North Atlantic
Treaty Organization (NATO) member states and non-governmental
organizations (NGOs).
Transportation represents the 'choke point' for destabilizing or
illicit commodity flows. Air and maritime transport actors are far
easier to trace than arms brokers, drug cartels or resource
smugglers as the former must legitimately register their aircraft,
vessels and associated companies. As such, transporters are the
only non-state actors involved in destabilizing or illicit
commodity flows required to operate overtly. This characteristic
makes them possible to track via databases, flight and maritime
records and field research and subject to control. The EU, through
its institutions, legislation, member states and European Security
and Defence Policy (ESDP) is uniquely placed to influence the
behaviour of these actors.
Unlike the global arms trade, UN mechanisms and standards to
regulate aviation and maritime transportation are already in place
and are increasingly enforced by supranational organizations such
as the EU. Existing EU air safety mechanisms have already
effectively targeted a wide range of companies named as involved in
SALW flows by banning them from EU airspace. Such companies are
thus prevented from accessing the world's largest regulated market.
As the world's largest humanitarian aid and development donor, EU
institutions, member states, NGOs and other partners can reinforce
these 'market denial' trends by adding ethical transportation
clauses to humanitarian aid, peace support, stability operations
and defence logistics supply chain contracts.
These clauses can preclude involvement with air transport actors
associated with destabilizing or illicit flows.
ESDP missions in Africa and Eastern Europe can effectively support
evolving EU information-sharing efforts through the insertion of
predeparture and in-country training modules and related components
that sensitize civilian and military ESDP personnel to
non-governmental air and maritime transportation issues. Such
measures combined with Internetbased platforms and databases may
also be used to address a lack of awareness and information
coordination regarding air cargo companies within the humanitarian
aid, peacekeeping and defence contractor communities in order to
reduce UN agency, NGO or commercial usage.
The application of relatively inexpensive yet empirically proven
opensource, data-centred project models combined with field
research can also provide EU and member state policymakers with the
type of coordinated information systems necessary to systematically
monitor air transport actors engaged in destabilizing or illicit
commodity flows in Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, South
America and Central Asia.
Recommendations
- The EU and member states should deny humanitarian aid, peace
support, stability operations and defence logistics supply chain
contracts to air transport companies engaged in destabilizing or
illicit commodity flows, in particular the transfer of SALW.
- The EU should support the efforts of African partners to improve
air safety through the provision of 'dualuse' transport development
capacity building projects that specifically target unsafe air
cargo companies engaged in destabilizing commodity flows.
- ESDP mission planning and operational structures should take
into account the key role of air transport companies in many ESDP
mission areas and provide the requisite sensitization, awareness
and reporting training.
- The EU's air safety mechanism should be refined and resourced to
take account of the evasion techniques used by unsafe air cargo
companies seeking to access EU markets.
The Policy Paper summarized here is part of an on-going study by
the Countering Illicit Trafficking Mechanism Assessment Project
(CIT-MAP) at SIPRI. CIT-MAP takes a multidisciplinary approach to
the problem of destabilizing or illicit arms transfers. The project
draws on investigative field research and empirical analysis which
are synthesized in solutionoriented reports.
Further information on CIT-MAP, including its first publication,
'Stemming destabilizing arms transfers: the impact of European
Union air safety bans', SIPRI Insights on Peace and Security no. 3,
Hugh Griffiths and Mark Bromley, Oct. 2008, is available at
<http://www.sipri.org/contents/armstrad/cit-map>
3. The role of air cargo carriers in war economies
[Excerpts from Chapter 3, excluding footnotes. Chapter 3 includes
details on cases including Angola, the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Somalia, and Sudan. Full text,
including footnotes, is available on http://www.sipri.org]
War economies are political economies that typically involve both
state and nonstate actors specifically, private business sector
actors and armed groups that seek to initiate or perpetuate
conflict for economic as well as political gain. The economic
drivers of these conflicts tend to centre around the control of
natural resources and the territory required to extract and
transport them. The use of state-based security forces, the
military, customs and intelligence officials to conduct extra-legal
activity features prominently in war economies.
Despite operating in isolated areas, war economies are sustained
and developed through interaction with global markets. It has been
noted that contemporary patterns and modalities of instability not
only occur within states but across states and regions. These wider
connections reflect the characteristics of modern-day war
economies. They are rarely self-sufficient or autarkic after the
fashion of traditional nation-state-based war economies. On the
contrary, though controlling local assets, they are heavily reliant
on all forms of external support and supplies. Maintaining the
political entities associated with post-nation-state conflict
usually requires transregional linkages. At the same time, the
marketing of local resources and procurement of arms and supplies
are based on access to global markets and, very often,
transcontinental smuggling or grey commercial networks. In many
respects, contemporary war economies reproduce the networked
structures associated with globalization more generally.
This structural reproduction is aided by the fact that export
chains related to war economies are usually not entirely illegal:
transactions along the way may involve licensed traders, legal
concessions and legal transportation. Simultaneously, these
economies include clandestine business practices such as avoiding
taxes, evading economic embargoes, manipulating currency, violating
trade regulations, smuggling, and illegitimately exploiting raw
material resources practices that typically involve air cargo
carriers that have been named in UN Security Council and other arms
trafficking-related reports. It has been observed that 'most
modern war economies are highly dependent on all forms of external
support and trade networks that is, for the marketing of resources
or services in order to secure arms, fuel, equipment, spare parts,
munitions, clothing, food aid, funding, and so on'.
This chapter highlights aspects of the war economies which
prevailed or continue in Angola, Colombia, the DRC, Liberia, Sierra
Leone, Somalia and Sudan which are inextricably linked to and
facilitated by air transport actors. ...
Air cargo carriers as facilitators of war economies in Africa
Although air cargo carriers are one of the principal transporters
for licit consumer imports in western, central and sub-Saharan
Africa, many of these same air cargo carriers are also involved in
war economy export chains either through the transport of small
arms and light weapons and the valuable raw materials themselves or
the servicing of extractive industries through the movement of
fuel, spare parts and other equipment and have been named in UN
Security Council and other arms trafficking-related reports. They
play a central role in these war economies due to a reliance on air
transport for the transfer of certain essential commodities over
difficult or dangerous land routes. The air transportation links,
the frequency of flights and the air cargo companies granted the
rights to such routes also reflect broader trading relationships
between groups and networks that are often separated by national
borders. Despite the presence of such barriers, air transportation
links between groups in different states can be stronger than those
within a particular state.
Air cargo carriers and the war economy in Angola, 1992 2002
Air cargo carriers were closely associated with the transport of
SALW, diamonds and mining equipment in the diamond-based war
economy that dominated areas of Angola for two decades. In the
period 1994 97, the National Union for the Total Independence of
Angola (Uni o Nacional para a Independ�ncia Total de Angola, UNITA)
is estimated to have exported $1.9 billion worth of diamonds.
During this time the illicit trade in diamonds and arms took place
unhindered from monitored airstrips where, according to private
sector actors, the UN was often present. According to the UN, 'an
Interpol analysis of probable UNITA airstrips places each one close
to a UNITA mining area, suggesting continuing close links between
UNITA's logistics and diamond trading'. A UN report noted 'air
transport as the main avenue for re-supplying UNITA forces' which
was supported by other reports noting how air cargo carriers
facilitated the war economies in territory under UNITA control
through the delivery of fuel oil and other commodities essential to
the operation of UNITA's electricity generators, military and
transport vehicles as well as food, beer and medical equipment.
Air cargo carriers and the war economy of the Democratic Republic
of the Congo, 1997 present
Air cargo companies have played a key role in extractive processes
and export transactions associated with the DRC's wealth of
precious mineral reserves for more than 15 years. The DRC's
reserves include one third of the world's cobalt and one tenth of
its copper, diamonds, coltan, cassiterite (tin ore) and gold. The
scale of these reserves and disputes over land ownership provide
for the potential for conflict for years to come. In all of the
conflicts to date, air cargo carriers have played an important
role. Areas of the DRC where conflicts centred around control of
diamond mining and extraction processes have been described as
'network wars' and have involved air cargo carriers. In the DRC,
air cargo carriers have been used to transport large quantities of
cassiterite from mining areas under the control of a particular
military group and have been documented as responsible for
transporting up to 80 per cent of cassiterite from conflict zones
and other rural areas in eastern DRC. In 2008, according to export
data from the DRC Government certifier, known as the Diamond and
Precious Metals Evaluation Centre, this would represent a traded
volume of over 150 tonnes with an export value of over $150
million.
Air cargo carriers have also been frequently used to transport the
mineral coltan from outlying areas in eastern DRC and from the main
towns such as Bukavu to international markets. Air cargo carriers
have been reported as being specifically created to transport
coltan from the DRC to Kenya and Rwanda. Arms dealers have been
reported as having leased an Ilyushin cargo aircraft to militia
leaders to transport coltan from the DRC. Other air cargo carriers
named in UN reports as transporting coltan were reported to be also
conducting business on behalf of militia leaders.
UN reports also state that air cargo carriers have transported gold
from conflict zones, as well as diamond traders who play a key role
in artisanal diamond transactions in the DRC. Air cargo carriers
have also serviced security and acquisition operations through the
transportation of soldiers and military equipment. In some areas
under rebel military control, Soviet-era cargo aircraft have made
up to 24 flights per day from tarmac roads serving as improvised
airstrips.
Air cargo carriers and the war economy in Liberia, 1996 2003
During the various conflicts affecting Liberia during much of the
1980s and 1990s, the war economy encompassed 'all activities
relating to the illegal extraction, taxation and export of
Liberia's natural resources, particularly timber, rubber, diamonds
and gold'. The importance of the income generated by these
activities for Liberian President Charles Taylor and his associates
were recognized by the UN when it placed a trade embargo on
diamonds and timber emanating from Liberia. While timber
concessions were granted to businessmen with links to maritime
shipping companies, key diamond traders in Liberia sanctioned by
President Taylor operated air cargo carriers in conjunction with
business partners such as Victor Bout. A US Government report
states that air cargo operators who were linked to arms supply and
raw material extraction operations in Angola, the DRC and Rwanda
were paid in Liberia in 'diamonds and other valuable commodities'.
Diamond trade networks in Liberia were involved in air cargo and
other commercial transport operations. The UN documented how the
Liberian Bureau of Maritime Affairs and its agent, the Liberian
International Shipping and Corporate Registry, 'had been used for
cover and funds for arms and transportation in violation of UN
sanctions'. The UN noted that diamond dealer and air cargo carrier
operator Sanjivan Ruprah, who 'had been a deputy commissioner of
maritime affairs', was tasked by Taylor to 're-organize' Liberia's
civil aircraft registry, which was used by at least 12 air cargo
carriers named in UN Security Council reports.
Air cargo carriers and the war economy in Sierra Leone, 1996 2000
Between 1991 and 2001, Sierra Leone was the site of a network war
that pitted the rebel group the Revolutionary United Front (RUF)
against the Sierra Leone Government, tribal groups and the private
military company Executive Outcomes. Under President Taylor,
Liberia was a major sponsor of the RUF in Sierra Leone, supplying
arms and ammunition via air in order to ensure continued RUF
control over diamond mines. The diamond SALW trading nexus in
Liberia was intimately linked to diamond mines in Sierra Leone,
which provided a far higher annual yield in terms of uncut diamonds
than Liberia. Air cargo carriers played a central role in this
nexus.
According to a UN Security Council report, 'the role of aircraft in
the RUF's supply chain is vital'. The network that developed has
been described as a new form of warfare where 'the real value of
the state . . . is that it controls the legitimisation of illicit
trade operating on the periphery of the air cargo industry'. Air
cargo carriers and associated individuals such as Sanjivan Ruprah
involved in the diamond trade were key facilitators of this war
economy. In addition, it has been claimed that during the civil war
airport security officials at Freetown's Lungi Airport were
notoriously inept and corrupt, making it easy for smugglers to
export diamonds derived from RUF territories.
Air cargo carriers and the war economy in Somalia, 1999 present
In Somalia commodities play a less capital intensive role in the
war economy, which is instead structured around the need to control
key import, export, distribution and transit nodes such as maritime
ports, airports, bridges, road junctions and markets. Licit exports
such as bananas or charcoal transiting these nodes may be 'taxed'
by militia groups, which also control the points of access required
by commercial actors and humanitarian organizations seeking to
deliver aid or goods. After SALW, the most valuable and widespread
war economy commodity is the narcotic khat. Militia leaders control
the import of khat and use revenue generated from its sale to
finance SALW purchases. Air cargo carriers play a key role in the
import and distribution of this product, which is consumed by many
militia members. A UN Security Council report states that air cargo
carriers transporting khat to Somalia are part owned by warlords
and are also involved in poly-trafficking which include deliveries
of SALW. The UN also states that air cargo carriers involved in
khat and illicit SALW transfers to Somalia had earlier been
contracted by Ugandan forces operating in the DRC.
Air cargo carriers and the war economy in Sudan, 1998 present
The ongoing conflicts in Sudan have been partly caused and
sustained by competition for control of oilfields. The discovery of
oil in the Darfur region and its concessions linked to particular
foreign companies in partnership with relatives of members of the
government have focused attention on the links between oil
contracts, arms flows, conflict and displacement in Sudan. In
southern Sudan and Darfur, government forces and rebels have
'utilized private sector actors as vehicles to earn the needed
revenue and establish the required international connections to
access military arms and continue fighting'. These private sector
actors have included both foreign and domestic air cargo carriers
to service the Sudanese oil industry via airfields such as those at
Heglig. Indeed, the oil industry in central and southern Sudan is
serviced by some of the same air cargo actors named in UN Security
Council reports for violating arms embargoes in Darfur. According
to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch reports, air cargo
Antonovs flying from the oil company airfield at Heglig have also
been used to bomb villages in southern Sudan.
AfricaFocus Bulletin is an independent electronic publication
providing reposted commentary and analysis on African issues, with
a particular focus on U.S. and international policies. AfricaFocus
Bulletin is edited by William Minter.
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