>In other words, the black/white picture is starting to crack. We
>should help to utterly shatter it.
Financial Times - May 17, 2004
UK snubs France over arms trafficker
By Mark Turner at the United Nations, and Mark Huband and Andrew Parker in London
The UK is backing the US in pressing for a notorious arms trafficker alleged to be involved in supplying goods to coalition forces in Iraq to be omitted from planned United Nations sanctions, in defiance of French demands.
Washington is resisting efforts by France to freeze the assets of Victor Bout, once described by Peter Hain, now leader of the House of Commons, as a "merchant of death" for his role in supplying arms to rebel and government forces in several African conflicts, including Liberia.
The UN is considering a list of individuals whose assets will be frozen due to their involvement with the ousted regime of Charles Taylor, the former Liberian leader overthrown last year.
Western diplomats say London had originally supported moves to freeze Mr Bout's assets, but appeared to have reversed its view under pressure from Washington.
The diplomats say they have been told of reports that an air freight company associated with Mr Bout, who is subject to a UN travel ban due to his activities in Liberia, may be involved in delivering goods to US forces in Iraq, and that the US may be "recycling" his cargo network.
A former UN official familiar with the sanctions process said he had been told by a reliable source about a month ago that "the American defence forces are using Victor's planes for their logistics".
A senior western diplomat close to the UN negotiations, who repeated this allegation, said: "We are disgusted that Bout won't be on the list, even though he is the principal arms dealer. If we want peace in that region [of West Africa], it seems evident that he should be on that list."
Another senior diplomat close to the UN discussions said the UK had originally included Mr Bout's name on its list of individuals to be targeted. The diplomat said US officials then told their British counterparts they did not want Mr Bout included because he was "being used in Iraq".
Mr Bout's name then did not appear on a subsequent UK list, the diplomat said. The Foreign Office yesterday refused to comment.
The US argues that Mr Bout's activities should be dealt with in separate UN measures addressing the role of arms dealers.
US and British officials at the UN deny any knowledge of Mr Bout's alleged activities in Iraq.
A UN Security Council resolution in March said the assets of Mr Taylor, his immediate family, or "other close allies or associates", would be frozen.
In 2000, Mr Hain, then foreign office minister responsible for Africa, described Mr Bout as "the chief sanctions-buster, and ...a merchant of death who owns air companies that ferry in arms" for rebels in Angola and Sierra Leone. Mr Hain yesterday refused to comment.
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Gladioli or guns fair game for a sanctions buster
By Mark Huband and Andrew Parker in London
Gladioli and guns may seem unlikely commodities for a single company to be dealing in. But in the chaos that erupted in much of sub-Saharan Africa at the end of the cold war, the former Soviet pilot Victor Bout found that both could be lucrative.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Mr Bout spent $120,000 on three Antonov cargo aircraft. Based from 1993 at Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, he used the aircraft to transport anything from weapons to the Angolan rebel movement Unita, to South African gladioli that he sold for a profit of 500 per cent in Dubai.
But the furious spat that has erupted between the UK, French and US governments over US and UK demands that Mr Bout's name be left off a list of people whose assets should be frozen because of their association with the former Liberian president Charles Taylor, has revealed that the arms dealer may be edging closer to shedding his past.
The accusations against him are extensively documented in reports compiled by United Nations investigations into sanctions-busting operations in Angola, Liberia, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia.
A United Nations issued in December 2000 said Mr Bout's company, Air Cess, was frequently seen by the UN's mission in Angola landing in territory held by Unita rebels.
On November 7, 2000, Peter Hain, then British foreign office minister responsible for Africa, said: "Victor Bout is indeed the chief sanctions-buster, and is a merchant of death who owns air companies that ferry in arms and other logistic support for the rebels in Angola and Sierra Leone and take out the diamonds which pay for those arms."
A UN investigation in March 2000 into arms supplies to Unita said Mr Bout had established a base in Rwanda. There, the government "allowed Unita to operate more or less freely in [the capital] Kigali for the purposes of arranging diamond sales and meetings with weapons brokers".
In January 2001, the UN Security Council received a detailed report on sanctions-busters and illicit diamond deals in Sierra Leone. The UK representative, Stewart Eldon, told the council he was alarmed by what he called the "malign role played by individuals, such as Victor Bout, in the illicit arms supply chain".
The travel ban imposed on Mr Bout in 2001 in response to his role as a main supplier of arms to Charles Taylor's regime, has not halted his activities. A UN report in November 2003 alleges that he is in ultimate control of a Texas-registered company called Air Bas, that is flying to Somalia.
He has also been able to operate despite two arrest warrants. One, issued by the Central African Republic, states that Mr Bout was found guilty of forgery and sentenced to two years in prison and a fine in July 2000. A second was issued by Belgium in March 2002 on money laundering charges.
Meanwhile, Mr Bout lives unhindered in Moscow and has been able to travel. According to one European intelligence service, he narrowly missed being caught when troops from two European countries prepared to apprehend him at a small airport in Croatia in October 2001.
But the attempt was abandoned when the forces were inexplicably told to let him go.