SP: Albanian weapons in Yemen
02/10/2012

The suspicious affair between the Albanian Defense Ministry and the Serbian arm merchants has taken bigger proportions.

The Ministry headed by Arben Imami is involved in an arms trade with Slobodan Tesic, who is on the black list of the UN Security Council, since his company “Moon Storm Enterprises” has sold arms to the regimes considered as terrorists by the USA. MP Erjon Brace proved the connections of Tesic with the Albanian Ministry of Defense.

“The Moon Storm Company is owned by the Serbian citizen Slobodan Tesic, who is on the UN black list. The documents show that he and his company have supplied weapons to the barbarian African dictators, especially Gadaffi, in Libya. The period the documents refer to is 2009-2011. These documents show that during this period, the Albanian Defense Ministry has signed a series of agreements with Moon Storm. He has even had favors with the ministry postponing the contractual deadlines by insisting until the end to work with him”, Brace declared.

According to the Socialist MP, the weapons involved in these agreements have ended up in Yemen.

“We have a new set of unclassified trade documents, besides the RPG rockets' transaction. We are talking about an agreement that has as object the sale of 20.000 120mm rockets in Yemen and 4 million bullets. The corresponding period is the end of 2009, the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011. The period referred in the partners’ information corresponds with the period when the civil conflict took place in Yemen. The Zolja rocket trasnaction, according to the documents, had a 1 year delay for the agreement. On December 2010, MEICO insisted for the implementation of the Moon Storm agreement, and asked for a second time to postpone the Export License till the first three months of 2011. The transaction was realized by using Montenegro and the Tivar Port as transitory, on January 2011, when the final transport of the weapons was made”, Brace declared.

Since the Defense Ministry has had a problematic arms dealer, Slobodan Tesic, the Socialist MP Erjon Brace asked the Defense Minister to resign.

“Albania has been stained by this partnership that Imami made with the Serbs. There is a very high penal and political responsibility. Minister Imami must resign today. The director of SECA (State Export Control Authority at the Defense Ministry) and the Military Intelligence Service must be discharged and left outside the Ministry. Everyone should undergo penal investigations”, Brace declared.

Ministry: The act is legal. Socialists’ interest is defamation

“The Socialist Party continued today with other conspiracy theories which are public facts. The Ministry of Defense has sold arms to Yemen in full accordance with the national and international law. This fact has been reported to the UN and was published on SECA’s report, which can be easily found on internet. When the agreement was signed, there was no sign of civil war in Yemen, besides the authorities fighting against the Al Qaeda terrorists.