Conflict & emergencies

Liberia: U.N. Arms Embargo Failing

Weak Export Controls Largely to Blame

2001-11-08, Issue 41

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/conflict/3995

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The United Nations Security Council must enforce the international arms embargo on Liberia, Human Rights Watch said today.

Liberia: U.N. Arms Embargo Failing
Weak Export Controls Largely to Blame

(New York, November 5, 2001) The United Nations Security Council must
enforce the international arms embargo on Liberia, Human Rights Watch
said today.

A new U.N. report, prepared by an independent panel of experts and
scheduled for discussion at the Security Council today, documents many
cases of illegal arms shipments to Liberia in the past eighteen months.

"The arms flows into Liberia make a mockery of U.N. sanctions," said
Joost Hiltermann, executive director of the Arms Division of Human
Rights Watch. "These weapons fuel
brutal wars and feed regional
instability-with terrible consequences for human rights."

The Liberia arms embargo was first imposed in 1992 and tightened in
March 2001 to curb arms trafficking via Liberia to the
Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels in Sierra Leone,
who are also subject to a U.N. embargo. There has been progress toward
disarmament in Sierra Leone, but fighting continues on the border
between Guinea and Liberia.

The new U.N. report, which presents detailed information and documentary
evidence, reveals that the weapons shipped illegally to
Liberia-comprising ammunition, small arms, and helicopter spare
parts-came from Ukraine, Slovakia, and Kyrgyzstan, respectively. Two
shipments of helicopter gunships, one from Kyrgyzstan via Slovakia and
another from Moldova, were halted at the last moment. Planned shipments
of massive quantities of small arms from Ukraine were also interrupted.
All of the weapons were sold on the basis of counterfeit
documents provided by arms brokers. These documents, called end-user
certificates, falsely declared the weapons were intended for another
country, in most cases Guinea. In at least one case, a regional ally
knowingly provided false cover for illegal arms shipments to
Liberia.

The arms-trafficking networks of two well-known arms dealers also used
fraud to conceal the operations of the front companies and airlines
involved in the Liberia shipments.

The pattern echoed what earlier U.N. investigations, as well as research
by Human Rights Watch, had uncovered in Angola and Sierra Leone. (See,
for example, Human Rights Watch, "Neglected Arms Embargo on Sierra
Leonean Rebels," http://www.hrw.org/press/2000/05/slback0515.htm and
Angola Unravels, September 1999,
http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/angola/)

According to the U.N. report, not one of the exporting countries'
governments checked to see if Guinea, the purported end-user, had
actually requested the weapons.

"Arms export controls in central and eastern Europe are a disgrace,"
said Hiltermann. "That makes it easy for arms traffickers to get away
with their deadly trade." He urged that arms-exporting governments and
multilateral institutions such as the European Union and NATO do more to
curb irresponsible arms trading in the region. (See Human Rights Watch,
"Security Risks Posed by Arms Transfers from E.U. Candidate Countries,"
October 19, 2001, at
http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/10/arms-eu-ltr1019.htm)

Human Rights Watch called on the Security Council to urgently implement
the following key recommendations contained in the Liberia panel's
report:

·Immediately ground all aircraft owned, operated, or insured by the
companies identified in the U.N. report as having arranged illegal
arms flights to Liberia.

·Encourage member states to investigate all arms deals involving
any of the companies or individuals named in the report and to
communicate their findings to the U.N. sanctions committees.

·Establish a U.N. working group to rapidly develop a standardized
end-user certificate that would be difficult to forge.

Human Rights Watch also recommended that the Security Council call on
U.N. member states to enact national laws that implement U.N. arms
embargoes and to prosecute violators. It further urged the Security
Council to authorize UNAMSIL peacekeepers in Sierra Leone to
monitor and enforce the arms embargo in force on the RUF there,
especially in Kailahun district, and make public the information it
collects. Finally, it called on the Security Council to establish a
permanent U.N. unit to monitor and report on arms embargo violations.

For more information on U.N. arms embargoes in Africa, please see:

Security Concerns Raised by Arms Transfers from Candidate Countries (HRW
Letter, October 19, 2001) at
http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/10/arms-eu-ltr1019.htm

Neglected Arms Embargo on Sierra Leone Rebels (HRW Briefing Paper, May
15, 2000) at http://www.hrw.org/press/2000/05/slback0515.htm

The U.N. Sanctions Committee on Angola: Lessons Learned? (HRW Briefing
Paper, April 17, 2000) at
http://www.hrw.org/press/2000/04/brif-angola.htm

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