From: pnmideast@igc.apc.org
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Date: 18 Aug 92 23:31 PDT
Subject: armstoyugoslavia
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Subject: armstoyugoslavia

/* Written 11:07 am  Aug 18, 1992 by gn:flemunpeace in cdp:yugo.antiwar */
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Arms trade to former Yugoslavia : facts and figures

from: Ernst GULCHER, Johan PELEMAN

date: 19 August 1992

contact:
International Peace Information Service - IPIS
Italielei 98A, 2000 Antwerpen, Belgium
+32-3-2250022/2250799 (fax)
GN:flemunpeace

====

part I:

from:
Tackling the Flow of Arms
Ernst GULCHER
Geneva, IPB, July 1992, p.30-34

Yugoslavia

The case of Yugoslavia demonstrates once again the need to obtain control
over arms export and to prevent illicit arms sales. As we will see in the
chapter on the United Nations, illicit arms trade and the trade of small arms
will not be the object of monitoring in the new UN-register on arms
transfers. This means in fact that the smuggling of arms to regions of war
is impossible to stop, even if this is the wish of almost all the governments
of this world. Both the European Community and the United Nations Security
Council passed resolutions in the early autumn of 1991 to prohibit further
arms deliveries to Yugoslavia and its breakaway republics. In February 1992
the chief of staff of the Croatian Air Force said that since mid-January,
when the 12 nations of the European Community granted Croatia international
recognition, it has become significantly easier for his government to buy
fighter jets, anti-aircraft weapon systems and other arms from European
governments. In the same week a UN report was published in which UN Secretary
General Butros Ghali said he was disturbed by reports that the UN arms
embargo is not being observed (International Herald Tribune 19 February
1992). Reporters from Jane's Defence Weekly estimated in October 1991 that
since June more than $15 million worth of personal weapons had been supplied
to Yugoslavia, Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia from 'black market', and
government-endorsed suppliers (Jane's Defence Weekly 5 October 1991, p.399).
In the autumn of 1991 it was discovered that the Hungarian firearms
manufacturer FEG had delivered a large consignment of FEG Kalashnikov-pattern
rifles to Croatian militias. Because this discovery was followed by stringent
export restrictions from the Hungarian government, the company faced
bankruptcy by the end of November. Romania also delivered large quantities
of weapons, so too have private dealers in the United States, Italy and
Israel. After one of the Italian Mafia-connected arms dealers was arrested,
the Italian prosecutor reported that the customers wanted back the $5 million
they paid into a Swiss bank account. Articles published in the German press
in March 1992 about the active presence of armed German Neo-Nazis in the
Croatian armed forces, strengthen the impression that the Croatian liberation
struggle is corrupted by criminal influences.

In October 1991 Swiss journalists discovered that 50 Swiss army 'Saurer-Bern'
trucks were sold to Zagreb, disguised as Red Cross vehicles and officially
transporting 'humanitarian aid'. Earlier consignments had gone through
unhindered but the Ministry of Defence was forced to suspend the delivery
when it learned that an extreme nationalist 'Alliance of Croatian Societies
in Central Croatia' was the final destination for the trucks and that a
sympathetic Swiss Croatian had acted as intermediary. Switzerland is a
neutral country and military deliveries to Yugoslavia are certainly against
the national law.

At the beginning of December a cargo of Chilean weapons was discovered in
Hungary, apparently on its way to Croatian separatists. The 11-tonne cargo,
which included surface-to-air missiles and which was labelled as medical
equipment, was detained by Hungarian police when it was being loaded onto
trucks to be taken into Croatian territory. The arms were confirmed to be
Chilean-made but both the Chilean authorities and Cardoen, Chile's largest
private arms manufacturer, denied having anything to do with them. In the
second half of December it was reported that the war already sustained for
Croatia a financial burden of 18 billion US dollars as a result of export
losses, industrial and agricultural plundering and bombing of energy supply
centers. To this, the human suffering should be added to complete a truly
appalling picture of destruction.

Despite the embargoes, the war continues to attract arms dealers and
activates the local arms industrial sector. At the big arms exhibition in the
Middle East state of Dubai at the beginning of November 1991, Yugoslavia
tried to buy and sell military hardware. Officers from the Federal army
showed interest in M-48 battle tanks used during the Gulf war by the Kuwaiti
army and apparently tried to obtain them in exchange for their multiple
rocket systems with a range of 50 km. Also in November the Yugoslav Federal
Directorate of Supply and Procurement boasted that it was about to join with
General Dynamics in a bid to secure a multi-billion dollar programme to co-
produce the Super Galeb advanced trainer/light attack aircraft. Spokesmen for
General Dynamics denied any involvement but admitted that there were talks.
At the end of April the company confirmed that these talks with the
Yugoslavian SOKO aircraft company of Mostar in Bosnia-Hercegovina, which
dated as far back as before the actual commencement of war, were only
postponed until the end of the fighting. During this period the company was
reported to be under nightly attack from Croatian mortar bombardments (Jane's
Defence Weekly 25 April 1992).

Despite the war, there seems nevertheless to be some ironic form of mutual
cooperation amongst the warring factions. At the end of March 1992 it was
reported by the press agency Tanjug that the Croatian and Yugoslavian armed
forces are cooperating to produce battle tanks to be exported to Kuwait. This
tank, of the most modern type that can be offered by the regional military
industry, is produced in a factory in Slavonski Brod, 120 kilometers east of
Zagreb. Control of the production is in the hands of the Croatian military
forces but active cooperation of the Yugoslavs must be guaranteed to enable
execution of the contract. General Anton Tus, chief of staff of the Croatian
army said that the production and export of weapons to other countries is of
common interest to both parties in the conflict. According to this military
commander contacts by the factory with other military factories had been
interrupted in 1991, but the Croatian army decided at the beginning of 1992
that it would be necessary to observe the agreements with Kuwait. While
Yugoslavia is disintegrating in violence and terror, the military-industrial
sector seems to be the last one with an 'all-Yugoslavia' conscience.
According to Colonel Anastas Paligoric, marketing director of the federal
sales and procurement organization, SPDR, Yugoslavia is placed just outside
the top 10 military exporter nations of the world. According to the Colonel,
in 1991 sales of military equipment amounted to 460 million dollars and
orders for 1992 are increasing. Trading links with Egypt, Kuwait and Libya
are well established and new market openings in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and
Iran are promising. In India, an order for main battle tank fire control
equipment was won, beating the French. The production of the above mentioned
battle tank for Kuwait is seen by the colonel as a proof that Yugoslavia is
still a survivable nation and he is proud of his SPDR organization which
celebrated its twentieth birthday in 1992. Despite the war the SDPR announced
in april that it proceeded with an international defence electronics
exhibition in Belgrade in June. Called DEFEL, the exhibition is aimed to
attract Western companies and potential buyers from the Middle East and Asia
(Jane's Defence Weekly 4 and 25 April 1992).

=====

part II

Additional facts:

Yugoslavian arms trade before the war:

De Standaard 11/08/92 (Belgium): Yugoslav industry was largely self-
sufficient, as it was established by Tito in response to the threat of a
Soviet military intervention .
In 1989-90: 90% of the arms production is destined for the people's army
(YNA). Still, the country is considered the world's number 12 in arms
exports. Most of the industry is situated in Bosnia.

De Morgen 30/01/92 (Belgium): arms factories are spread all over the
Yugoslavian area; 
Slovenia: withdrew its troops from the Federal Army and built up a
considerable amount of armements.

Who's delivering arms and military systems right now?

Slovenia: 

De Morgen 30/01/92 (Belgium -Source: Associated Press, London): In July '91,
Anton Bebler, military expert for the Slovenian government declared in an
article in the International Herald Tribune that, since '89 his country has
bought for over 50 million $ in arms from the Soviet Union, Germany and
Austria.

Jane's Defence Weekly 25/07/92: Tactical surveillance radar system (AN/TPS
70-range 450km) installed at Ljubljana International Airport, delivered by
Westinghouse Electric Corp (USA). The company overran a Siemens'(FRG)
contract because Siemens expected the German government wouldn't grant a
licence for this military contract. (Yugoslavia purchased four systems in the
early '80s.

SIPRI -Yearbook '92 (page 407-415):
"The Slovenians especially owed their fighting capability initially to the
considerable quantity of arms, including infantry and air defence weapons,
they retained from as the Yugoslav Army tried to disarm the territorial
defence forces. The SLovenians kept 40 percent of their weapons..." Page 408

The Lebanese Forces, the largest Christian group in Lebanon, reportedly sold
most of its 100 million worth of weapons in secret to the breakaway republics
Slovenia and Croatia during the spring of 1991. (Independence of Croatia and
Slovenia 25 June '91)
Much of the weapons also came from the Soviet Union, where as in Lebanon, not
all arms are under central control. The USA also is an important source for
small arms which can be bought openly because of permissive gun laws. Guns
and rifles from the USA were found in numerous seizures of arms by German and
Austrian border control forces. Page 408 (SIPRI-Source: Frankfurter
Rundschau, 16/09/92 and 19-20/09/92)

According to SIPRI, Slovenia had prepared for its independence for two years.
The Slovenians therefor own a.o. M56 submachine guns, derived from German
MP40 but produced in Yugoslavia. They also carried Romanian AK-47 and
Hungarian AMD-65 assault rifles during the fighting with federal forces.
Armbrust anti-armour weapons designed in Germany were marketed from
Singapore. The Slovenians also captured a number of armoured personnel
carriers from deserting troops of the YNA. Page 409 (SIPRI-Source JDW
13/07/91)
Slovenia reportedly spent $50 million on imports from Germany, Austria,
Singapore, the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. 


Serbia and Montenegro:

De Standaard 11/08/92 (Belgium -Source: Associated Press, London): 'elements'
from the former Soviet Union's armed forces and other WTO countries: 
- In '91 the Federal Army imported on a large scale military equipment from
the former Soviet army, not necessarily via official channels: so-called
'elements' of the former Soviet armed forces established private private
companies and acted as middle-men to trade with black marketeers who smuggled
armaments through Romania to the Serbs.
Some of the arms reached the Croats and Muslims. Russia's deputy head of the
Russian ministry of foreign and economic relations, department of arms trade
Vladimir Pachomov denied any responsibility and disavowed all rumours about
illegal arms sales as being false. 
Several militias in Lebanon:
- Belgrade's independent weekly 'Vreme' recently published that: 13.000 tons
of armaments were smuggled in through the Montenegran port Bar, arriving from
Lebanese christian and muslim militias.
Italian mafia:
- According to military experts, arms trade routes between Italian ports and
Montenegro. Experts from the International Institute for Strategic Studies
in London confirm this.

Le Monde 31/12/91 (Source: Croatian agency HINA): the federal army (YNA) is
said to have launched surface-to-surface missiles, model R65 (Luna-M). The
type of missile is derived from the Soviet Frog-7. These non-guided missiles
have a range of 70km. Western sources confirm the presence in the YNA of
about 16 mobile launch-platforms (ZIL-135 lorries) and some hundred missiles
of this type.

The Observer 31/05/92: article about the Belgrade-Baghdad connection. Iraqi
MiG-23 jet fighters have been seen in Belgrade. During the eighties
Yugoslavia sold arms to Iran and Iraq when these countries were at war in the
first Gulf war. It is not sure how the MiG-23 got to Yugoslavia, whether
direct from Iraq, before the (second) Gulf war broke out, or via Iran. The
joint Iraqi-Yugoslav M-87-Orkan is also said to be used near Serajevo. This
multiple rocket launcher has cluster munition (fragmentation) and has a range
of 50km. The Serbs are also said to plan the building of a long-range gun,
based on a system invented by the notorious Supergun genius Dr Gerald Bull.
(who was killed before the Gulf war reportedly because of the close ties
between his Belgian-based Space Research Corp. and the Baghdad regime)


Croatia:

De Morgen 30/01/92 (Belgium) and I.H.T. 02/07/92: Croatia has bought arms for
100 million $ from the Christian 'Lebananese Forces'(the largest armed
christian armed fraction in Lebanon): artillery, rocket launchers, machine
guns, ammunition. According to the Lebanese newspaper 'Safir' a shipload of
arms had been sent to an unnamed group in Yugoslavia. The Lebanese are trying
to get rid of their arms after the '91 reconciliation accords.

De Morgen 30/01/92 (Belgium): in September '91 the Federal Army discovered
(during a border control?) 520 R4 assault rifles in Croatia, the South
African firm Armscor and manufacturer Lyttleton Engineering Works denied any
direct involvement. The weapons were hidden in the luggage of a British
middleman. On the order-sheet were also mentionned: 10.000 Kalashnikovs,
5.000 American-made M-16 rifles and some Soviet RPG-7 anti tank rockets. 
Jane's Defence Weekly 30/05/92: according to experts in Zaghreb the weapons
were obtained on the open market from a third party, described as a black
African nation.

De Morgen 30/01/92 (Belgium): in August '91 the American customs arrested 4
men in Chicago from the Croatian group 'OTPOR'. The group seems to be looking
for weapons in the US. They had 12 million $ available to buy Stinger-
rockets, rifles and goggels (night vision equipment).

The Guardian 06/02/92: Norbert Gansel, spokesman of the German SPD: "huge
quantities of arms and munitions" have been sold from the former East German
State.
Intelligence sources confirm that rich Croatian immigrants in Canada, the US,
Australia, New Zealand and Germany finance arms transport. UN-experts confirm
these statements.

The Intern. Herald Tribune 19/02/92: President Franjo Tudjman denies that
Croatia has any official agreement with bordering Hungary to import arms.
When asked if large amounts of arms were entering Croatia unofficially
through Hungary, the president said:'no comment'. 

De Standaard 11/08/92 (source Associated Press): in August '91 Croatia
collected 300 million $ fund-raisings in the US and other countries for the
procurement of arms.

IHT 19/02/92: Brigadier Milan Macek (a former federal air force pilot who
defected to Croatia) said that since mid-january, when the EC granted Croatia
recognition, it had become significantly easier for his government to buy
fighter jets, anti aircraft weapons systems and other arms from European
governments. "We expect our unjust shortage of aircraft to be resolved in
less than one month", he said. According to the brigadier the acquired air
defense systems enable the Croats to defend themselves from jets flying lower
than 6.000 meters (19.600 feet). A Croatian businessman in Zagreb said in an
interview that Croatian pilots were being trained at bases in the former GDR.
He said they were flying surplus Soviet-made MiGs that the German government
acquired at reunification. Brigadier Macek wouldn't comment when he was asked
about this. 

De Morgen 30/01/92 (Belgium): In the autumn of '91, it appeared that the
Hungarian government-owned company FEG had delivered 20.000 Kalashnikovs to
the Croatian national resistance in January '91.

International Herald Tribune (06/03/92): Drug traficking through the Balkans
(by Kosovarian Albanese) is said to finance the buying of weapons and
amunition in Switzerland; The weapons were sold to Croatian militia units and
other armed factions in Yugoslavia, according to a Paris based narcotics
monitoring group (The Observatoire Gopolitique des Drogues.)

SIPRI Yearbook '92 (See also SIPRI on Slovenia):
Guns and rifles from the USA were found in numerous seizures of arms by
German and Austrian border control forces. (Source Frankfurter Rundschau,
16/09 and 19-20/09/91). Attempts to export $12million worth of US-produced
infantry weapons to Croatia were stopped by US customs. Croatia was also
interested in General Dynamics FIM-92 Stinger low-altitude Stinger SAM
missiles. 
The Hungarian manufacturer FEG was threatened by bancruptcy in late '91 when
the Hungarian government enforced export restrictions following the discovery
of the Kalashnikov-deal to Croatia. (mentioned above) SIPRI p. 408 (Source:
JDW 24/08/91 and 30/09/91)


Bosnia
Promises of islamic groups in Turkey and Iran to provide the Muslims in
Bosnia with weapons haven't been kept yet but pressure is said to be
mounting.

Apart from the vast black market for arms, it seems that vital resources such
as oil and steel are also available:

-Many deals are being bargained in Austria.(no details). Traffic routes run
through Roumania and Hungary or through the Adriatic and the river Danube.

Roumania:
exports oil via the river Danube to Serbia. (The Guardian 10/08/92)

Ukraine:
exports steel to Serbia. (The Guardian 10/08/92)

The Adriatic coastline is said to be too long to enable an efficient controle
of the embargo.

A great deal of armaments is coming from the former Soviet Union, Poland,
Czechoslovakia and the former GDR.

The Yugoslavian arms industry updated:

YNA:
De Standaard 11/08/92 (Belgium - Source: AP) The YNA's (Serbia and
Montenegro) arms and amunition depots are well-filled. Over a thousand tanks
(Military Balance '91: 850 T-54/-55, 300 M-84 and T-72, ...) and several
thousands of armoured vehicles; 400 Fighter aircraft ( Military Balance: 25
P-2 Kraguj, 59 Jastreb, 60 Super Galeb, 55 Orao-2, 112 MiG-21 F/PF/M/bis, 18
MiG-21-U and 16 MiG-29) and 200 Helicopters (70 Mi-8 assault and 180 Gazela
Attack). Most of our recent information confirms that there is an enormous
shortage of trained pilots.
Navy: 4 frigates, (2 Kotor with 4 x SS-N-2B Styx Surface-to-Surface Missiles
and Anti-Submarine Weapons and 2 Split with 4 SS-N-2B Styx SSM and Anti-
Submarine Weapons); 15 Missile Craft Coastal Combattants and 14 Torpedo Craft
Combattants.

Croatia:
De Standaard 11/08/92 (Belgium - Source: AP) Croatia is said to establish an
industry of its own; Southafrican and Israeli fire arms are being copied and
a spare part facility to repare the 200 tanks they acquired during the war. 
The Croats claim to have about 150 tanks of recent model (a.o. German
Leopards)
The Airforce is said to have acquired 1 MiG-21, that was flown to Pula in
February. The pilot defected to Croatia. Plans to acquire further combat air
craft (a.o. US-made F-16) have been halted by the UN-embargo.(Source JDW
20/06/92)

Other sources: Jane's Defence Weekly 30/05/92 ("Made in Croatia"), JDW
18/07/92 ("Divided we stand, divided we fall"), JDW 05/10/91 ("Croatia's arms
revealed"), JDW 09/05/92 ("Croatians launch first warship" and "Croatia,
small arms production".)

Belgium-made Arms at the front in Croatia:
-Armbrust (PRB-MBB) (details De Morgen 30/01/92)
-Fal (FN) JDW 27/06/92: Argentine FMA 7.62mm Fal Self Loading Rifles)
-Vigneron SMG's (JDW 09/05/92)

The embargo:

The European Community decided on a ban of all arms deliveries to Yugoslavia
on 5 July 1991, the US followed on 11 July. In early August the EC approached
more than 20 governments suspected of delivering arms to the clashing
parties.

The UN Security Council voted for a voluntary and immediate general and
complete embargo on all deliveries of weapons and military equipment on 25
September 1991 in Security Council Resolution 713.

The EC imposed economic sanctions on 8 November 1991 at the Nato summit in
Rome. The sanctions were imposed on all combatants but since they were aimed
at punishing the Serbs, ways were drawn up to compensate friendly republics.
However, the sanctions still allowed transit routes trough the Yugoslavian
republics to third countries. This made it easy for  perpetrators. 

The UN Security Council voted resolution 724 on 14 December 1991 demanding
all states to report the Secretary General within 20 days on the measures
they have taken to enforce the embargo of resolution 713 (par. 6) and
deciding on the establishment of a Security Council Committee, composed of
all the Council's members to analyse the reports mentioned-above, to examine
all the reported violations of the embargo and to recommend further measures
to put the embargo in practice. Resolution 727 of January 7th. again
reaffirms the embargo. Resolution 740 of February 7th. again demands full
cooperation of all states with the Committee created in resolution 724.
Resolution 743 (February 21. '91), decides that the embargo imposed in
Resolution 713 doesn't apply to weapons and equipment of the Peace Keeping
Forces (UNPROFOR). 

Security Council Resolution 757 of 30 May 1992 decides on economic sanctions,
namely the prohibition of all exports from or all business-transaction on
Yugoslavian (Serbia and Montenegro) territory and on the freeze of all
Yugoslavian (Serbia and Montenegro) assets abroad. The embargo also prohibits
air traffic from and to the republics Serbia and Montenegro. The prohibitions
however, don't apply to the transit of basic products and merchandise through
the Yugoslavian Federal Republic (Serbia and Montenegro). The resolution
further decides on the reduction of diplomatic relations with the Yugoslavian
Federal Republic (Serbia and Montenegro) and calls a halt on all scientific,
technological and cultural cooperation or exchange with or from the
Yugoslavian Federal Republic (Serbia and Montenegro.) The committee,
established by resolution 724 is charged with the implementation of this
resolution. Restrictions, garanteeing humanitarian, medical and food supplies
are also being controlled by the committee. (The latter exceptions to the
resolution 757 on prohibitions concerning the sale or supply to Serbia and
Montenegro of commodities or products, other than medical supplies or
foodstuffs and the prohibition against financial transactions, are recalled
in Resolution 760. These prohibitions, it states, shall not apply, with the
approval of the established Committee under the simplified and accelerated
"no objection" procedure, to commodities and products for essential
humanitarian need.)

The WEU ministers, followed shortly afterwards by the Nato-NAC ministerial
session agreed on July 10th. in Helsinki on a maritime operation of the
Standing Naval Forces in the Mediterranean (STANAVFORMED) to monitor
compliance with the resolutions 713 and 757. Final arrangements were made by
the North Atlantic Council and the Defence Planning Committee on July 15. The
operation started on 16 July at 08:00 local time in the Adriatic. The Nato
and WEU forces however, only surveilled the area, but had no mandate to
impose any sanctions whatsoever on eventual non-complying ships.

The European Commission decided on August 12th, after repeated allegations
about the negligence and non-compliance with the imposed embargo on arms and
the economic sanctions to strengthen the control on these sanctions.
Especially the transit rights through the Yugoslavian Republics (Serbia and
Montenegro) seem to facilitate the non-compliance with the sanctions and the
embargo. Export documents now should be signed by the receiving parties, in
a written confirmation after the delivery. The Roumanian government, who
always denied allegations about circumventing the imposed embargo, now asked
the European Commission for help. The Commission will send a group of
international experts to monitor the embargo and the sanctions. The group
will be stationed at the borders of the Black Sea and the river Danube. The
Roumanian government produced a list with names of ships being suspected of
non-compliance with the UN-sanctions. The most named offender countries are
Russia, Ukraine and Greece. The EC minister meeting of August 17 1992 could
not come to a decision on the strengthening of the control and monitoring of
the sanctions. It is said that the bureaucratic measures to be taken would
be too enormous.



Xref: sparky soc.culture.yugoslavia:7987 soc.culture.bulgaria:1155 soc.culture.greek:7563