- Title: [SW News] Africa waging war with second-hand weapons
- From:[]
- Date :[]Sat Feb 05 2000 - 17:04:28 MST
Africa waging war with second-hand
weapons
Thalif Deen
New York - The ongoing civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),
which US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright described as "Africa's First
World War", is being fuelled mostly by weapons from the former Soviet bloc
countries and military training from the United States.
At least seven countries, whose heads of state are currently in New York for
a mini-African summit, are being provided with military instruction and
training by the United States.
The weapons, including fighter aircraft, combat helicopters, battle tanks
and heavy artillery, have come mostly from Russia, Belarus, Bulgaria,
Poland, Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
The seven African leaders - from the Republic of Congo, Namibia, Zimbabwe,
Rwanda, Zambia, Mozambique and the DRC - are trying to find a negotiated
settlement to the civil war in DRC, which is threatening to turn into a
wider regional conflict.
The US, which holds the rotating presidency of the 15-member Security
Council for the month of January, has been primarily responsible for
sponsoring the UN summit.
US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, president of the Security Council, has
labelled January "The Month of Africa" and has convinced the other 14
Council members to specifically focus on the devastation caused to Africans
by the spread of Aids and the rash of civil wars in the trouble-plagued
continent.
But William Hartung of the New York-based World Policy Institute says that
"it will take more than a month for the Clinton administration to begin to
undo the damage wrought by decades of misguided US weapons transfers to
African dictators and demagogues like Zaire's Mobutu Sese Seko and Angolan
rebel leader Jonas Savimbi".
The $1.5 billion in US arms and training sent to Africa during the Cold War
years "set the stage for the current round of conflicts in the region",
Hartung points out. "The military skills and equipment supplied by the US
are still being used by combatants in these wars," he argues.
Under the current US International Military Education and Training (IMET)
programme, the US provided about $7.9 million in outright grants to
sub-Saharan Africa in 1998, increasing it to $8.1 million in 1998 and $8.5
million in 2000. In contrast, South Asia received only 5.7 million, 5.6
million, and $5.8 million, respectively.
Rwanda is to receive about $325 000 in fiscal year 2000, Zimbabwe about $300
000, Zambia about $150 000, Mozambique $180 000, Namibia $175 000, and the
DRC $75 000.
Uganda, which is militarily backing the rebel forces fighting in the DRC, is
expected to receive about $400 000 in US military grants this year.
In a report released on Monday, the Institute said that the ongoing civil
war in the DRC is "a prime example of the devastating legacy of US arms
sales policy on Africa".
The US prolonged the rule of President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire (now the
DRC) by providing him with more than $300 million in weapons and $100
million in military training.
The report said that Mobutu used his US-supplied arsenal to repress his own
people and plunder his nation's economy for three decades, until his brutal
regime was overthrown by Laurent-Desire Kabila's forces in 1997.
"When Kabila took power, the Clinton administration quickly offered military
support by developing a plan for new training operations with the armed
forces," the Institute said.
Throughout the Cold War (1950-1989), the US delivered over $1.5 billion
worth of arms to Africa. Many of the top US arms clients, including Liberia,
Somalia, Sudan and Zaire, "have turned out to be the top basket cases of the
1990s in terms of violence, instability, and economic collapse", the report
said.
Meanwhile, according to a report in the London-based military magazine
Jane's Defence Weekly last November, the DRC has finalised an arms deal with
Georgia for the purchase of 10 sophisticated Russian-made Sukhoi Su-25
fighter planes at a cost of about $5 million.
In the latest UN annual Arms Register for 1999, Russia has declared the sale
of six fighter aircraft and 65 armoured personnel carriers to Angola, and
two combat helicopters to Chad. At the same time, Russia has also supplied
six fighter aircraft to Eritrea and eight to Ethiopia, two countries
involved in a brutal border war in the Horn of Africa. All of the equipment
was delivered in 1998.
According to the Arms Register, Poland has supplied 18 120mm mortars to the
DRC, along with 1000 rounds of mortar ammunition, while Bulgaria has
supplied 90 T-55 battle tanks to Uganda and 50 to Ethiopia.
Belarus has transferred 40 T-55 battle tanks to Ethiopia, most of them
described as second-hand Russian-supplied vehicles which had been in service
with the Belarus armed forces. In a similar sale, Kazakhstan has re-exported
eight 122mm second-hand, Russian-made long calibre artillery systems to
Angola.
Ukraine's 1998 arms sales to Africa included one combat helicopter and four
armoured personnel carriers to Guinea.
Ukraine also exported 14 attack helicopters to the north African country of
Algeria, along with 32 armoured personnel carriers and 27 battle tanks.
Since 1996, the US has been providing, on a cost-free basis, large
quantities of second-hand surplus weapons from its army, navy and air force
inventories. But most of the give-aways have to be refurbished, serviced and
maintained by the cash-strapped countries, costing millions of dollars in
hard currency.
During 1995-1996, for example, the US provided four Lockheed C-130 military
transports to Ethiopia and 10 Bell helicopters to Ghana. The US also gifted
two C-130 transports to Zimbabwe, along with seven torpedo launch control
panels and 88 000 rounds of 40mm ammunition.
The largest number of give-aways was to Botswana, one of the few African
nations whose economy is on the upswing. The US equipment included three C-1
30 transport planes, 261 towed howitzers, and 100 000 rounds of 20mm
ammunition.
Additionally, Botswana also purchased 18 second-hand US-made F-5 fighter
planes (some of them transferred from Canada with US permission) at a total
cost of some $28 million.
Hartung says the US should restrict the flow of weapons and training to
Africa and provide economic support for sustainable development policies.
This is the only way, he says, that the US can help create the conditions
needed for peace and stability to take root.
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