Posted on 02/27/2002 5:48:36 PM PST by Miss Marple
WASHINGTON, Feb. 27 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The arrest in Belgium of international arms broker Sanvjivan Ruprah and other associates may be an important step in crushing an arms smuggling network that has catered to abusive forces in Africa and Afghanistan in defiance of U.N. sanctions, The Fund for Peace said today. It added that all countries should ensure that the Interpol arrest warrant against the ringleader, Victor Bout, is served.
The Fund for Peace has been active in exposing the activities of international arms brokers such as Bout and in advocating stronger and wider controls. "We dissected the 1996 U.S. law on brokering, one of the best in the world, and found out that it has never been enforced," observed Loretta Bondi, advocacy director of The Fund for Peace.
The Fund for Peace pointed out that one of Bout's companies, Air Cess, was reportedly based in Miami and that the 1996 U.S. statute may apply to Bout. No information is publicly available of any specific U.S. investigation that may lead to Bout's prosecution under this law.
Kathi Austin, the Fund's director of the Arms and Conflict Program, who has investigated numerous arms pipelines, including the Bout connection, noted that the scant existing controls on brokers have been largely ineffective. "Only eleven countries in the world have statutes on brokering and they are seldom enforced. The findings of our investigations exposed these networks, but little has been done to shut them down." This underscores the need for an international convention on brokering, which The Fund has drafted.
Victor Bout, a former KGB official, remains at large despite numerous U.N. investigations that between 1996 and 2001 have documented his sanction-busting operations. Through his connection with former Warsaw Pact arms suppliers and a web of air transport companies, Bout reportedly peddled arms to embargoed forces in Afghanistan, Africa and elsewhere. Originally operating out of Ostend, Belgium, in 1997 Bout relocated his activities to the United Arab Emirates from where he conducted business undisturbed.
"The United Arab Emirates' mantra has been that they had no hard proof of Bout's illegal activities. But they are hiding behind a fig leaf. The UAE should account for the trafficker's whereabouts," said Bondi, an expert on international targeted sanctions. "For its part, the U.N. needs to explain fully why Bout's air company, Flying Dolphin, obtained a U.N. waiver for flights to Afghanistan."
"The U.S. and other governments have long relied upon arms dealers, like Victor Bout, to do their dirty work in the supply of covert operations around the world," noted Austin. "We have yet to break our reliance on illicit operators by prosecuting them even when they violate our national laws and threaten our national security."
What caught my eye was the interesting connections between these arms dealers, the United Arab Emirates, Africa, and the UN.
But the most interesting thing is the location of Miami. Does anyone remember the arrest of a protoge of Jesse Jackson, a young Wall Street hot shot, who had been let go from a Germman financial institution? He was caught in Miami trying to buy small missiles.
hmmm ... bump just for jesse ...
I never read that thread though.
As I posted on a similar thread......I ran several threads on
the Ingram saga last year. Still in FR archives I would assume.
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