"Disarmament," in Iraq, seems to me to be a meaningless idea. Weapons galore in Iraq, and "Defections and resignations have also been common in Iraqi police and army units, the dealers said, and often departing soldiers and officers leave with their weapons, which are _worth more than several months of pay_" (emphasis added, C.J. Chivers, "Black-market Weapon Prices Surge in Iraq," 10 December 2006). To make disarmament possible, Washington needs to pay far more to Iraqi policemen and army soldiers and officers.
<http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/12/10/news/weapons.php> <http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30613FC3F550C738DDDAB0994DE404482> Black-market Weapon Prices Surge in Iraq By C.J. Chivers Sunday, December 10, 2006 SULAIMANIYA, Iraq
The Kurdish security contractor placed the black plastic box on the table. Inside was a new Glock 19, one of the nine-milimeter pistols that the United States issued by the tens of thousands to the Iraqi Army and police force.
This pistol was no longer in the custody of Iraqi Army or police officers. It had been stolen or sold, and it found its way to an open-air grocery stand that does a lively black-market business in police and infantry arms. The contractor bought it there.
He displayed other purchases, including a short-barreled Kalashnikov assault rifle with a collapsible stock that makes it easy to conceal under a coat or fire from a car. "I bought this for $450 last year," he said of the rifle. "Now it costs $650. The prices keep going up."
The market for the American-issued pistol and the ubiquitous assault rifle illustrated how fear, mismanagement and malfeasance are shaping the small- arms market in Iraq.
Weapon prices are soaring along with an expanding sectarian war, as more buyers push prices to levels several times higher than those that existed at the time of the American-led invasion nearly four years ago. Rising prices, in turn, have encouraged an insidious form of Iraqi corruption — the migration of army and police weapons from Iraqi state armories to black-market sales.
All manner of infantry arms, from rocket-propelled grenade launchers to weathered and dented Kalashnikovs, have circulated within Iraq for decades.
But three types of American-issued weapons are now readily visible in shops and bazaars here as well: Glock and Walther nine-milimeter pistols, and pristine, unused Kalashnikovs from post-Soviet Eastern European countries. These are three of the principal types of the 370,000 weapons purchased by the United States for Iraqi security forces, a program that was criticized by a special inspector general this fall for, among other things, failing to properly account for the arms.
The weapons are easy to find, in teahouses, the backrooms of grocery kiosks, cosmetics stores and rug shops, or from the trunks of cars. Proprietors show samples for immediate purchase and offer to take orders — 10 guns can be had in two hours, they say, and 100 or more the next day. The forces propelling the trade can be seen in the price fluctuations of the country's most abundant firearm, the Kalashnikov.
In early 2003, a Kalashnikov in northern Iraq typically cost from $75 to $150, depending on its condition, origin and style. Immediately after the invasion, as fleeing soldiers abandoned their rifles and armories were looted, prices fell, pushed down by a glut and a brief sense of optimism.
Today, the same weapons typically cost $210 to $650, according to interviews with seven arms dealers, two senior Kurdish security officials and several customers. In other areas of Iraq, prices have climbed as high as $800, according to Phillip Killicoat, a researcher who has been assembling data on Kalashnikov prices worldwide for the Small Arms Survey, a Geneva-based organization.
Arms dealers say that rising prices have led to more extensive pilfering from state armories, including the widespread theft of weapons the United States had issued to Iraqi police officers and soldiers.
"In the south, if the Americans give the Iraqis weapons, the next day you can buy them here," said one dealer, who sold groceries in the front of his kiosk and offered weapons in the back. "The Iraqi army, the Iraqi police — they all sell them right away."
No weapons were displayed when two visitors arrived. But when asked, the owner and a friend swiftly retrieved six pistols, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and three Kalashnikovs from a car and another room.
Two of the rifles were slipped out of the rice sacks they were wrapped in. They were spotless and unworn, and appeared to have never been used. They were priced at $560 each. The dealer said that they had recently been taken from an Iraqi armory.
"Almost all of the weapons come from the Iraqi police and army," he said. "They are our best suppliers."
One pistol was a new Walther P99, a nine-milimeter pistol that the dealer said had been issued by the Americans to the Iraqi police. It was still in its box.
Tracing American-issued weapons back to Iraqi units that sell them is especially difficult because the United States did not register serial numbers for almost all of the 370,000 small arms purchased for Iraqi security forces, according to a report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.
The weapons were paid for with $133 million from the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund. Among them were at least 138,000 new Glock pistols and at least 165,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles that had not previously been used, according to the report.
Lieutenant General Martin Dempsey, commander of the Multinational Security Transition Command, agreed that weapons provided by the United States had slipped from custody.
"I certainly concede that there are weapons that have been lost, stolen and misappropriated," Dempsey said. He noted that the inspector general had estimated that 4 percent, or about 14,000 weapons, were lost between arriving in Iraq and being transferred to Iraqi forces. The general said that he thought the estimate was high and that accountability was improving. A weapons registry was being created, he said. "Serial numbers are being registered," he said.
But the estimate of a 4 percent loss did not include weapons that were lost or stolen after being issued to Iraqi units. The arms dealers said this was the main source of their goods.
Some of the weapons have been taken by insurgents in ambushes or raids. Defections and resignations have also been common in Iraqi police and army units, the dealers said, and often departing soldiers and officers leave with their weapons, which are worth more than several months of pay.
Aaron Karp, a small-arms researcher at Old Dominion University, said that Iraq resembled African countries that had had extraordinary difficulties with the police selling off their guns. "The gun becomes the most valuable thing in the household," he said.
"If anything happens to a police officer's family and he needs money, he walks into work the next day and says, 'Hey, my gun got stolen.'"
Another weapons dealer, who Kurdish officials said had been providing them with weapons since 1991, said that the latest black-market sales followed an old pattern precisely.
Throughout Saddam Hussein's rule, Iraqi army officers were in the arms trade, he said, selling weapons to smugglers. This was how the Kurdish guerrillas kept themselves supplied.
Now, he said, the smugglers remain in business, and their trade is made easier because the units often do not have inventories. "I am surprised sometimes by the numbers," he said. "Sometimes they come by the hundreds."
James Glanz contributed reporting from Baghdad.
-- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>