BOSNIAN ARMS DONATED TO AFGHANISTAN PROBABLY IN TALIBAN'S HANDS - RESEARCHER
BBC Monitoring International Reports - August 14, 2007 Tuesday

Text of report by Bosnian newspaper Dnevni avaz on 11 August

[Interview with independent researcher Hugh Griffits by Sead Numanovic; place and date not given: "Bosnian Weapons in the Hands of the Taleban"]

Weapons that have recently been donated by Bosnia-Hercegovina to Afghanistan may have easily ended up in the Taliban's hands, independent researcher Hugh Griffiths has warned. Griffiths has worked for a number of international governmental and non-governmental organizations.

He is the author of the Amnesty International (AI) report published in May last year that warned that equipment and weapons donated to Iraq in 2005 ended up in the rebels' hands.

Missing Consignment

Dnevni Avaz published exclusively some excerpts from that report at the time, which was followed by denials from domestic and international institutions in B-H. They claimed that everything was done in accordance with the law and that it was impossible for the donated material to have ended up in the wrong hands.

However, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) determined that the consignment of weapons and equipment, which was dispatched to Iraq in 2005, is probably missing.

The Washington Post published the GAO report at the beginning of this week and essentially confirmed the warning that Griffiths sent to the world more than a year ago.

"That report warned about what we had emphasized in our work for AI. It is impossible to determine where the hundreds of thousands of pieces of light weapons donated to Iraq ended up.

"With regard to B-H, consignments of weapons and equipment were sent to Iraq from August 2004 through June 2005. However, this is not the end of the bad news. A similar thing is happening now in the case of Afghanistan," our interlocutor said.

[Numanovic] What is it all about?

[Griffiths] At the end of the last year, or at the beginning of this year, the B-H Presidency passed a decision to donate weapons to Afghanistan. Considering the way and the procedure that was applied this time too, it is more than likely that the weapons from B-H, which were donated illegally, ended up in the hands of the Taleban.

How? It is simple! I am afraid that the same procedure was applied this time, as well, and nobody made record of the serial number of each article that was sent to Afghanistan. Such unmarked weapons that are distributed to that county's militia are impossible to track down, and, as I said, it is more than likely that some of them will end up in the hands of the Taleban.

Furthermore, when international officials in B-H so wish, they engage the EUFOR [EU Force], which stops the delivery of arms to Venezuela, for instance, but they extort the donation of weapons to Afghanistan.

This shows that the system in B-H is not functioning, because responsibility is not clearly defined. According to one law, the Defence Ministry decides on donations, while the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations is in charge of issuing the required export permits.

However, in practice, EUFOR and the powerful NATO members, such as the United States, have a very powerful position.

[Numanovic] Are you saying that they are ordering the B-H authorities to do what they are required to do, irrespective of the domestic laws?

[Griffiths] Not exactly, but they use diplomatic language to "strongly advise" the donation of weapons to where they want. Since the United States helps the B-H Defence Ministry with new uniforms, advisers, joint exercises, and experts, the Bosnians cannot say "no."

Law Violated

[Numanovic] How is it possible that none of the domestic or international institutions have ever protested about this?

[Griffiths] AI warned the public about this in 2006. The problem is that different weapon smugglers are involved in all this. Unfortunately, the B-H officials claimed that everything was done in accordance with the law, but that is not correct. A number of laws have been violated.

B-H politicians should pay more attention to what has been happening in the past three years.

[Numanovic] Is there a risk that B-H might face problems on the international scene?

[Griffiths] Only if the B-H authorities allow EUFOR and NATO to blame them. The truth is that the B-H authorities are not responsible for what happened, although EUFOR would be happy to accuse them. B-H politicians must simply protect themselves and say that they have not done anything without written approval from NATO and EUFOR.

[Numanovic] What exactly happened to the weapons that were sent from B-H to Iraq?

[Griffiths] The GAO discovered that around 190,000 pieces of light weaponry could not be tracked down. This is very worrying. The GAO is a White House and Congressional body known for its systematic and serious approach.

The missing weapons reached Iraq between August 2004 and July 2005. At the same time, weapons and equipment went from B-H through different channels to Iraq.

"The different channels" means that, for instance, a suspicious company from Moldova was involved in the business, and much was also done through some Swiss and British companies.

[Numanovic] What kind of Moldovan company?

[Griffiths] In May 2006 AI warned that some of the weapons and equipment had been transported through a Moldova company known to have been involved in smuggling weapons to Liberia and violating UN sanctions.

When I warned the coalition forces in Iraq about it, the flight control authority there told me that they did not have any indication of flights by the Moldovan company.

This shows that the entire affair was not well controlled and monitored. Soon afterwards, this fear was confirmed from the Sarajevo NATO Headquarters, where certain intelligence officers told me that it was very possible that some of the weapons from B-H has ended up in the wrong hands.

[Box] EUFOR Deluded Public

[Griffiths] I am convinced that many international organizations will work on these issues in more detail.

I know that some work has been done on this issue, in B-H as well as in Brussels, but also in other parts of the world.

This is about a serious and big problem.

International community representatives often manage many things in B-H. If they say that there is no problem about something, the problems disappear.

Nick Williams, a British who served in B-H, told me once that "once the weapons leave B-H, they are no longer of interest to us."

EUFOR has always worried about bad publicity. They have led the campaign that deluded the public in connection with the events that we are talking about. If someone called them now, they would surely say that the B-H authorities were to blame for everything. But that is not true.

If I am not telling the truth, let them explain how they were able to stop a consignment of weapons for Rwanda - I think at the end of 2004 - but they let many weapons go to Iraq, in such a non-transparent and illegal way.

The things have changed nowadays, because EUFOR plays an advisory role now in this process, but three years ago it was a decisive player.

With regards to everything that I have said, I have hundreds of documents to support my arguments.

[Box] Weapons Went to Fruit Processing Company

[Griffiths] If you read the GAO report it says on page 10 that the coalition forces have no information that any weapons came from NATO or any other country through the Iraqi Defence Ministry.

So, the coalition forces have no data on such deliveries.

EUFOR will give you a form 60, according to which the weapons went to Iraq through very strange companies in the United Arab Emirates. Those companies were described as "fruit processing companies."

This is weird, to say the least.

[Box] Who Is Ziad Cattan?

"Perhaps they reason for particular concern should be the fact that all the consignments of weapons for Iraq were, apparently, organized via that country's Defence Ministry.

"At the other end of it were EUFOR, the B-H Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations, and Unis Promex.

"According to the documentation, all the deliveries were made in the name of Ziad Cattan [Ziyad Qattan], the then deputy defence minister of Iraq.

"This man was convicted in absentia for embezzlement in the Ministry that cost the Iraqi people more than 1 billion dollars," Griffiths said.

Source: Dnevni avaz, Sarajevo, in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 11 Aug 07 pp 2,3 of Sedmica supplement

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Copyright 2007 BBC Monitoring Service , Source: The Financial Times Limited

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