Libyan weapons spread at alarming rate

http://www.macon.com/2013/04/09/2431376/un-panel-libyan-weapons-spread.html

UN panel: Libyan weapons spread at alarming rate
Published: April 9, 2013 

By EDITH M. LEDERER — Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS — Libyan weapons are spreading at "an alarming rate" to new
territory in west Africa and the eastern Mediterranean including Syria and
the Gaza Strip where they are fueling conflicts and increasing the arsenals
of armed groups and terrorists, a U.N. panel said.

In a report to the U.N. Security Council circulated Tuesday, the panel said
cases of illicit transfers from Libya in violation of a U.N. arms embargo
that have been proven and are still under investigation involve more than 12
countries and include heavy and light weapons such as portable air defense
systems, explosives, mines, and small arms and ammunition.

Since the uprising that ousted dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, the panel
said, "Libya has over the past two years become a significant and attractive
source of weaponry in the region."

It said civilians and militias remain in control of most weapons in Libya,
adding that "the lack of an effective security system remains one of the
primary obstacles to securing military materiel and controlling the
borders."

"In the past 12 months, the proliferation of weapons from Libya has
continued at a worrying rate and has spread into new territory: West Africa,
the Levant and, potentially, even the Horn of Africa," the panel said.
"Illicit flows from the country are fueling existing conflicts in Africa and
the Levant and enriching the arsenals of a range of non-state actors,
including terrorist groups."

The five-member expert panel made 28 visits to 15 countries in Africa,
Europe and the Middle East including 10 visits to Libya. The 94-page report
details arms trafficking cases that violate the embargo imposed after the
2011 uprising began as well as efforts to track down the financial assets of
individuals and companies linked to Gadhafi and his regime that are on the
U.N. blacklist.

The panel said it also examined evidence of the delivery of weapons and
ammunition from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates to support the
anti-Gadhafi revolutionaries during the uprising and considers that both
countries violated the U.N. arms embargo, despite Qatar's denial that it
transferred any military materiel.

It cited a case of the transfer of ammunition to Libya involving the United
Arab Emirates, Armenia, Albania and Ukraine, a separate case involving
Sudan, and the reported transfer of a drone to the Libyan opposition by a
Canadian company which Canadian authorities say is under investigation.

Last month, the Security Council eased sanctions on non-lethal military
equipment for the Libyan government but warned that the country is awash
with illegal weapons.

The panel said the increased availability of Libyan weapons has empowered a
variety of "non-state actors" engaged in conflicts against national
authorities, and it expressed concern that extremist armed groups, who are
the best financed, are strengthening their position.

"The lack of political and security stability, the continuing absence of
control over stockpiles by the national authorities and delays in
disarmament and weapons collections encourage illicit trading and have
generated considerable money-making opportunities for traffickers," the
panel said.

It said the post-Gadhafi outpouring of arms has helped fuel the conflict in
Mali where secular Tuareg rebels took half of the north as a new homeland in
2012 only to be ousted months later by Islamist Jihadists, many linked to
al-Qaida. When they suddenly headed south, France launched a military
operation in January that routed them, though remnants remain.

The most regular transfers of significant quantities of arms are going to
Egypt and the Sahel, the panel said, with less regular transfers to Chad and
Syria.

The panel said it received confidential information that 30 portable air
defense systems from Libya were bought from traffickers in Chad, and some
were transported to the capital Ndjamena.

In a new trend, it said, illicit arms are being transferred by both land and
sea toward the Levant in the eastern Mediterranean.

Egypt is facing an influx of arms from Libya, which present "a threat to its
internal security" because some arms are likely to remain in Sinai for use
against the government by insurgents, the panel said.

But it said the destination for the majority of arms from Egypt is the Gaza
Strip, which is ruled by the militant Islamic group Hamas.

Syria, where a conflict that has killed more than 70,000 people is now in
its third year, is also "a prominent destination for some Libyan fighters
and Libyan military materiel," the panel said.

It said weapons transfers have been organized by a range of actors in Libya,
Syria, and in countries neighboring Syria.

In the Horn of Africa, the panel said it had received evidence that various
types of ammunition originating in Libya have been found in Somalia, where
the Islamic extremist rebels of al-Shabab are still fighting the government.

Libya's Prime Minister Ali Zidan told the Security Council last month that
the government has controlled its borders with Algeria, Niger, Chad, Sudan
and Egypt and is training police, the military and a national guard that
will take security responsibility outside urban areas.

But despite efforts by the government to improve security, the panel said,
"the proliferation of weapons from Libya continues at an alarming rate."

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