Libya needs serious arms control

Last Friday, the UN Security Council decided to leave the arms embargo against Libya unchanged, and urged the government in Tripoli to improve the monitoring of its weapons. Libya and neighbouring Egypt had asked to lift restrictions on Libyan government arms imports 'so it could better fight extremists groups.'

Earlier this month the UN Panel of Expert on Libya stated in its annual report on 2014 that the country has “an open-ended conflict with no clear dominant military party.” In the aftermath of the NATO-backed war, militias flourished and weapons became freely available from within Libya or by procurement from outside. The chairman of the Dutch Parliamentary Comity for Defence, Han ten Broeke (VVD, Liberals) said to Stop Wapenhandel that unfortunately, after Khadaffi was killed, Libya started to proliferate weapons through the whole region, but “sometime you meet the Law of the Untended Consequences.” As if some consequences could not have been foreseen. In 2014 almost three thousand individuals were killed in the Libyan fightings and four hundred thousand were displaced, out of a population of six million. Unintended or not, the havoc in all surrounding countries - Mali as a point in a case, but also Syria -, is also enormous. This is in shrill contrast to the programs to halt arms transfers and trafficking by e.g. the United Nations Support Mission in Libya and among others the German Agency for International Cooperation.

The UN-report on Libya over 2014 is the fourth publication by the Panel of Experts: “Since the outbreak of the armed conflict in 2014, the demand for weapons and above all for ammunition, has soared and all parties to the conflict have been highly active in procuring military materiel. This has significantly increased the number of investigations conducted by the Panel” it states. Those investigations are not easy, because “while the panel is aware of pending transfers of material from several Member States, no such information was provided to the Committee [to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Bernardino León], making monitoring of deliveries of materiel very challenging.” The current Libyan acquisition budget is LYD 150 million (€ 104 million). For the next period 1 billion is expected (€ 696 million). Next year will be even more demanding.

The Panel is a body established by the UN and questions the Member States directly for information. But phrases like 'refusal to supply information' and 'no response has yet been received from the United States' etc. are many in the report. This is the case e.g. in connection to a cancelled, but partial delivered, order of Caracal F Pistols to the Libyan Ministry of Interior. An Hungarian bank, a US registered broker and a UAE arms producer were involved.

The scarce information which is coming forward makes the report however very valuable. In the Caracal pistol case the end-user certificate is annexed to the report to show the deal was real. In another case the use of confidential sources based at the port of Tobruk were mentioned. Those sources confirmed the offloading of military material including small arms and light weapons (SALW) from an Egyptian vessel.

It is remarkable that despite the ongoing conflict there is still space to export weapons. The Panel reports on weapons catched at the borders with Egypt, Algeria, Tunisia, Niger, Chad and Sudan. Chad is worried the weapons will end in the hands of Boko Haram. Arms traffickers in Chad sell Libyan anti-tank mines at 150 US$ a piece and SA-7 manpads (shoulder fired air missiles) for 10-12.000 US$.

Some cases are described in more detail in the report. One of them is a Italian arms transport just after the start of the Libyan revolution of 2011. Smuggled Warsaw Pact weapons were confiscated by Italy back in 1994, during the war in former Yugoslavia. The weapons were stored at the island Santo Stefano and not destroyed, despite a court ruling to that effect. In May 2011, four army trucks transported cargo from the army base at the island, but a juridical investigation into the final destination of these transports was blocked after army commanders invoked 'state security.' Rumours on arms deliveries to Libyan rebels during 2011 are still corroborated by the Panel.

Another case is the loss of 23 Oberland OA-15 assault rifles (made in Germany), 70 9mm Glock handguns (made in Austria) and more than 42,000 rounds of ammunition. The weapons were meant to protect the European Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM). In February 2014 Malta asked permission for the export and an end-user certificate had been signed by the EU-delegation to Libya. The 10th of March GardaWorld shipped the weapons to Tripoli International Airport. Upon arrival the Libyan customs said clearance documents were missing. EUBAM was informed about the arrival of the guns. But when GardaWorld personnel returned a week after with the requested documents, the weapons were gone. Libyan authorities did not bother for follow-up investigation.

Shipments of Milan anti-tank missiles from Libya to Syria were reported in previous reports. The missiles were produced by Airbus, but the company denied that it sold them to Libya. During the revolution of 2011 the Khadaffi regime accused Qatar of exporting the missiles to the rebels. In 2012 they were en route to Syria and found at the Letfallah II which was seized by the Lebanese authorities. “France did not disclose to which country the missiles had been originally exported” says the UN report. During the Airbus shareholder meeting Tom Enders, CEO of Airbus, was asked about it, but he responded it was the French government which had to answer. The Dutch government was never asked, because Airbus headquarters are in the Netherlands for tax evasion only, not for difficult questions on international relations.

Last year Qatar added a new chapter to its devastating policies in Libya. The emirate was accused of backing groups with weapons and funding while the heavy fighting of Operation Fajr was ongoing. When the UN Panel inquired about those strong allegations Qatar did not bother to respond. Nevertheless, Qatar still is a prominent client for Western arms.

What can be done to stop the Libyan arms market? The UN Panel has two recommendations to Member States. The first is to regulate brokering. The second is to inspect cargo to and from Libya. Life can be so easy. Another recommendation might be to cooperate when asked for information by the Panel. And to sanction those who don't, e.g. by refusing arms sales to those countries; a win-win opportunity. Another suggestion for recommendation: Pressure Member States of the EU to cooperate. One unnamed Member State called in the  for clear identification of the origins of arms flows and regretted the lack of cooperation from Member States in that regard. The Panel states itself in the report: “To date, despite the violations reported in the Panel’s three previous reports, no action has been taken against most of the violators. What is more, some have been involved in further violations.” There are many possibilities still to improve the situation. Lifting the embargo is not the way. Luckily that was not done.

Written for stopwapenhandel.org 
Dutch version Ravage-Webzine 

Terror in Nigeria with arms from Libya

Shortly after NATO started intervening in the Libyan civil war, governments from Northwest Africa warned against the danger of the spread of Libyan arms.  All members of the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel, which include Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Chad, were “on high alert regarding the potential impact of weapons on the loose reaching their borders.”

In Mali the situation deteriorated very vast. More to the south, in the Northeastern part of Nigeria the situation also became, and still is, highly explosive. Just looking at violent incidents of the first half of September illustrates the chaotic and dangerous situation in this region, where government troops, vigilantes and Islamists of Boko Haram are fighting each other.

Last September 8th, fighting broke out between Boko Haram militants and Nigerian government supported vigilantes in northeast Nigeria. Thirteen members of the vigilante group and five Boko Haram members died during the clash. Six days later at another incident, a vigilante was shot by the police. According to the victim's colleagues, they were stopped for driving in the wrong direction in a one-way lane by the police. They explained they had just arrested a Boko Haram suspect and and dared not to use the right track.. In response “the policeman opened fire, killing one of our members," a vigilante said afterwards. Angry youths reacted with violence; killed a policeman and threatened to burn down the police station.

A spokesman of the 7 Division of the Nigeria Army said that his division, once fully formed, will replace the vigilantes in the struggle against Boko Haram. But this will not make the situation less chaotic, as the Nigerian armed forces have become part of the problem. First of all because they are using extreme violence causing innocent civil victims. Second because Boko Haram has its influence in the armed forces as well. On the 16th of September the Nigerian Guardian reports that the army court sentenced 18 soldiers to death and jail terms because of links with Boko Haram.

Recently the Nigerian air force bombed Boko Haram encampments. Sabena Technics, a company with Belgium origin, is supporting the Nigerian Air Force by overhauling and retrofitting its Alpha Yets (Light attack jet and advanced trainer aircraft) and Hercules-130 transport planes. Questions may be raised how Sabena's activities relate to the EU arms export regulations forbidding exports to countries involved in internal conflict.

Arms from Libya for Boko Haram

Boko Haram is a well-organised group of an unknown size, but it is more than a small terrorist group, as can be concluded from the havoc it is causing and the one thousand arrests made within three months this year. The group wants to impose Islamic law in the northern part of Nigeria. Since 2009, 3.500 people have died because of the violence connected to the group. August 2013 alone, the organisation was linked to 160 deaths. This war comes on top of many existing unsolved problems in the neglected north, such as corruption, nepotism and poverty.

Boko Haram has no problem getting its arms. Control of the Nigerian border is weak. Custom officials are often corrupt and 1499 illegal passages (compared to 84 regular) exist in the mountainous regions and jungles surrounding the border. Control is even more difficult because of close connections between ethnic groups and families living on both sides of the border. Observers see the easy access to arms from Libya as one of the major sources of weapons for the organisation. Many of those weapons went first to Mali. And consequently not only Libyan, but also Malian rebels have easy access to arms and can exchange them for money to finance their activities. Aniebo Nwamu, a Nigerian journalist, wrote that: “Guns from Mali, Libya, Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East have already flooded Nigeria. There is nothing to expect but mayhem. (...) If armed robbers and other terrorists could purchase an AK-47 for just N10,000 [€46], where lies the hope of restoring peace to this country?”

The link between Libyan/Malian arms and Boko Haram is also shown by the fact that the French intervention in Mali led to less weapons finding their way to Nigeria. According to Prof. Agwu, senior Research Fellow at Nigerian Institue of International Affairs (NIIA), "it is not a coincidence that the leaders of Boko Haram in Nigeria began to consider the idea of a cease fire at the point when there support base in Mali had been destroyed".

That may be a bit optimistic. The support is not fully destroyed: “With the persistence of Boko Haram insurgency, hundreds of weapons including RPGs, rocket launchers, anti-aircraft missiles, and AK 47 rifles have been intercepted by security operatives in various locations in north-eastern Nigeria. It is widely believed that these weapons found their way to Nigeria from Libya and Mali,” wrote F. Onuoha September 2013 in a study for Al Jazeera. The same study mentions three recent seizures of large quantities of sophisticated arms.

Regional affairs

Not only Nigeria is affected by the war, but the whole subsaharan region. In Jeune Afrique, June 10 2013, Chad's President Deby said, “…the war in Mali comes from Libya and it is regrouping in Libya and this is a matter for the entire international community because the connection can be quickly made between Boko Haram in Nigeria and the groups in northern Niger. This is not encouraging and we are not prepared for this type of situation. Terrorism can strike when it wants, even in Chad.”

The answer to the problem should be (besides addressing the social and  economic problems causing the conflict) better and more skilled customs and cooperation on border controls throughout the region. This will be difficult because regional cooperation is not embedded in multi-national structures. Nigeria and the Niger belong to ECOWAS, Chad is a member of ECCAS, Mauritania is not a member of ECOWAS and Algeria is in the Arab-Maghreb zone). But “all the countries are willing to work in a more coordinated manner” wrote the UN Security Council in a report published January 2012.

The warning of the Northwest African countries in November 2011 was right. The effects of the spread of the uncontrolled Libyan arms will be felt for a long time.

Martin Broek, September 17, 2013
This article is part of a series on the spread of Libyan arms throughout Africa and the Middle East funded by Fonds Vredesprojecten.

Egypt, arms smuggling from Libyan stocks

During and after the NATO-backed civil war of 2011 arms and ammunition were stolen. It is not terribly difficult to smuggle these weapons into Egypt. The border is extensive and porous and weakly patrolled. “Transfers from Libya of more regular and significant quantities of arms and, at times, fighters have developed towards two geographic areas: Egypt and the Sahel,” wrote the Panel of Experts, established by the UN Security Council after resolution 1973 on arms trade, military activities and Libyan financial assets of 2011 was adopted. The Panel monitors and promotes the implementation of the sanctions.

After the overthrow of Kadaffi, Libyan arms started to flow into Egypt. Not for all these arms Egypt is the end destination. The panel states: “Multiple sources indicate that the end destination for the majority of arms is the Gaza Strip, but this is difficult to verify. It is also likely that a smaller proportion of arms remain in the Sinai for use against the Government of Egypt by the low-level insurgency in that region. The Egyptian authorities informed the Panel that arms also dispersed throughout other parts of Egypt. While as yet unproven, it is possible that hubs along this trafficking route may in the future serve as points for onward transfers to other countries.” (UN Panel p. 12, 2013) One of these other recipients are Syrian rebels which received big shipments of Libyan arms trough Egypt.

In January 2012 the Panel was provided information that 567 weapons and 1,132,411 bullets were smuggled into Egypt through its border with Libya (UN Panel p. 117,2012 and see also). Since then, the flows of arms into Egypt seem to have increased significantly. Libyan weapons have been seized in all parts of the country. In January 2013 the Panel got a list of seized arms and ammunition. “Since the imposition of the arms embargo, the Egyptian authorities have seized hundreds of small, light and heavy weapons systems, hundreds of rounds of ammunition for heavy weapons systems and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition for small arms and machine guns (upon request of the Egyptian authorities, the detailed list will not be published).”

The arms are smuggled through southern and the northern coastal routes, but also by boat from Benghazi and Tubruk on to Marsa and Matruh in Egypt. The traffickers are Libyans, Egyptians and Palestinian nationals.

Since the second half of 2012 the press started to write more on Egypt itself as final destination for the clandestine weapons. The Voice of America for example wrote: “Not all the weaponry flowing into Libya is going to the Gaza. The Egyptians are becoming alarmed that weapons are now being stockpiled by Egyptian Salafi groups. They are starting to uncover arms trafficked from Libya in the Nile Delta and believe other weapons are being stored in Sinai. It is making them very nervous.” The Washington Post points at large caches of weapons from Libya which are transported from Libya to Egypt’s already unstable Sinai Peninsula.

Confiscated weapons run from small arms to missiles. An example is the seizure of six anti-aircraft and anti-tank rockets in the Sinai peninsula, early January 2013. Armed Forces spokesperson Ahmed Ali in March 2013 mentioned (without specifying period and source of the weapons) the fact that Egyptian border guards stopped the smuggling of 8,138 guns, 450 magazines, 19 rockets and 100 bullets. These are enormous amounts. In June 2012 Egypt has seized a large weapons consignment, including Grad rockets, that had been smuggled from Libya and could have been headed to the Gaza Strip. The haul, which included 138 Grad rockets, a further 139 Grad warheads, and 400,000 rounds of anti-aircraft ammunition was made in the Mediterranean coastal town of Marsa Matruh, not far from the Libyan border, Egyptian newspapers reported. There are numerous other cases reported.

Smuggling activities lead to violence between security forces and smugglers. Several police stations and military checkpoints have been attacked. The bloodiest of those attacks resulted in the killing of 16 security guards.  Violence is also affecting local villagers. Inhabitants of an Egyptian oasis near the Libyan border were punished by the smugglers setting parts of their farms on fire for reason they cooperated with the authorities aiming at tightening security in the region. The war in Libya thus spills over to Egypt, which is even more serious because of the unstable situation in the country.

Last year, the Netherlands gave the green light for two arms deals concerning military navigation radars and fire control radar for so-called Navy Fast Missile Craft.(See) These ships are armed with different types of missiles and a 7.62 cm canon and a close-in weapon system. Exports from the Netherlands to Egypt are on hold but only for "any equipment which might be used for internal repression". This naval technology seems to fall outside this definition, although ongoing deliverances are supporting the military regime in Egypt. The question must be asked if a military regime, responsible for brutal murders of civilians, should not be punished by an all out arms embargo.

The arms smuggling seems to be counter argument against such a military embargo, at least on equipment used for tackling the illegal arms flows. Because part of the smuggling activities go by sea, naval vessels seem to fall under this category. The Naval Fast Missile Craft however are not for use against smugglers but “to ensure the use of sea lines of communication by Egyptian force,” which points to a higher level of military power. Moreover, Egypt has a Coast Guard “for the onshore protection of public installations near the coast and the patrol of coastal waters to prevent smuggling. Currently consists of one hundred five ships and craft.” There is no need for new navy weapons to stop smugglers.What Egypt needs most is a no war near its borders and an unequivocal condemnation and punishment of the military coupe.

Martin Broek

Research supported by FondsVredesprojecten  

Written for Campagne tegen Wapenhandel