The New York Times

Qaddafi’s Arms Bazaar, Slowly Exposed

By C.J. CHIVERS

Courtesy of Peter Danssaert/IPIS

Of the heads of state closely associated with the underground arms trade, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi has long been a veritable case study. His deep pockets of oil revenue, combined with his ambitions to be a regional power broker, spiced with his on-and-off role as supporter of nationalist movements elsewhere, has made him a prominent and persistent figure in an often shadowy game.

Take a look at the photograph at the top of this post. It shows crates bearing the stenciled markings “Parts of Tractor.” Guess what is not inside. Tractor parts, unless you consider 107-millimeter Chinese high-explosive Katyusha rockets to be tractor parts. Notice as well the other stenciled print: “GSPLAJ.” That stands for Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, the official name of Libya under Colonel Qaddafi. These munitions were confiscated in Congo in 2007, found in the possession of a rebel group whose leader is on trial for war crimes.

Over the years, weapons have flowed into and out of Colonel Qaddafi’s Libya, sometimes openly and sometimes via subterfuge. His government helped arm Idi Amin for war and repression in Uganda, and sent weapons as well to Palestinian, Irish and African fighters. A Kremlin client when convenient, the colonel entered arms deals with the Soviet rulers of Moscow and with the clique of former K.G.B. officials who run Russia today. But the Kremlin is hardly alone in feeding the Libyan arms pipeline. Qaddafi’s government bought widely, inhaling arms from Western nations, too, and from China, and from former Socialist satellites.

The eruption of fighting in recent weeks, and the looting of many government arsenals, has provided fresh peeks at Libyan accumulations and the perils they can pose. The New York Times and the At War blog looked last week at the potential threats from the SA-7 man-portable air-defense systems now loose in Libya. [Read the Times article here and first two At War posts here and here]. Today, we present two interesting items about other sightings of Libyan arms in recent years, from sources and researchers who cover the arms trade, which provide insight into how Colonel Qaddafi has acquired his arsenal and used it, and with whom he has been engaged. The picture, if only partial, is not pretty.

New Allegations of Albanian Arms Shipped to Libya

We’ll come back to those tractor parts at the end of this post. First let’s hear from the Shekulli newspaper in Tirana, Albania, which published on Feb. 27 a set of new allegations about illegal arms movements to Libya. Shekulli’s article details the alleged shipment of a freighter’s worth of 82-millimeter mortar rounds last year from the vast Albanian government stockpiles to the port of Ras Lanuf, where fighting between Libyan rebels and Qaddafi loyalists has been under way for several days.

The article was researched and written by Gjergj Thanasi, an investigative reporter in Tirana who often covers the arms trade. It provides a rich view of what would appear to be Albanian complicity in dealing with known arms smugglers to move government surplus munitions to the Libyan military.

The deal is structured in a curious fashion, because in 2010, Libya was not under international sanctions barring it from participating in the arms trade. But the article alleges that a false end-user certificate was issued, and that the deal was assembled in part under the hand of Slobodan Tesic, a Serbian arms smuggler who is subject to a United Nations travel ban for helping to arm former President Charles Taylor of Liberia, who is now facing a war crimes trial in The Hague..............................continues.............

http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/08/qaddafis-arms-bazaar-slowly-exposed/?partner=rss&emc=rss.