Africa’s Merchant of Death

Stefanie Rumple/03/28/08/ 10AM/ Global Crime/ Africa's Merchant of Death

We have learned how the end of the Cold War created a market for PMCs and mercenary soldiers; it also opened up the world arms market to a man named Viktor Bout, nicknamed Africa's Merchant of Death. Bout is Russian, although reports vary as to where in Russia he is actually from, and he is known to carry passports in several other names. He attended the Soviet Military Institute of Foreign Languages in Moscow in the 1980s, which the US alleges was a training ground for KGB officers. The KGB funneled arms to many conflicts during the Cold War, and it is thought that this is where Bout gained initial contacts for his arms trade, although Bout has always denied any membership in the KGB. He worked as a translator in Angola for UN peacekeepers, and speaks at least five languages, including several African languages. With his main base in Sharjah in the U.A.E., Bout is said to have supplied illegal arms, but also legal goods, to countries around the world, including the US, most recently during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, he is also known to be supplying arms and other supplies to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. This is apparently a long-standing modus operandi; Bout has supplied arms to both rebel and terrorist groups as well as to the governments those groups fight against. He is credited with being a major supplier of arms for both sides for the conflicts in Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Congo, Angola, and the Sudan, while also transporting peacekeeping forces and supplies into Rwanda, Iraq, Afghanistan, and others. For many years and on countless occasions, he has defied UN arms embargoes to war-torn areas, with the assurance of getting away with it, as apparently there is no penalty and no way to enforce one for breaking embargoes.

On March 7^th, Bout was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand, although formal charges have yet to be filed. Bout’s attorney’s allege that the arrest is unlawful, and Bout physically resisted being extradited to the US, stating that as no charges had been filed by the US either, there were no grounds for him to be extradited. The Thai government is still investigating whether he used their country as a base from which to ship illegal arms, and can hold him for up to 48 days before filing a formal indictment. They have, however, denied bail, and US officials stand waiting to extradite him in relation to his dealings with FARC, the Colombian rebel group supported by the government of Venezuela, which the US has designated a terrorist organization. Viktor Bout is said to be the real-life model for the character played by Nicholas Cage in the recent movie “Lord of War”. He refers to himself as a business man who has no reason to know the contents of his characteristic military-green cargo containers, or the purpose they will be put to. He seems to me to be a pure capitalist, ironically coming from Russia, the cradle of communism, with all the entrepreneurial spirit of a Rockefeller or a Bush, and many of the same ethical views.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/17/russian.arrest/

http://www.analyst-network.com/article.php?art_id=1846

http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=126563