PARIS - Arms dealer Viktor Bout was the merchant of death wanted for feeding
conflicts in Africa - until Iraq happened.
Today the United States and Britain are using his extensive mercenary
services in Iraq. The condemnation of his role in the diamond wars and
other conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa over the past ten years is being
silently erased.
The Tajikstan-born Bout would be an embarrassing ally to acknowledge
publicly. But the coalition partners are showing him exceptional favors as
he does some of their job for them.
MERCHANT OF DEATH Viktor Bout standing
near an airplane.
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The
UN Security Council drafted a resolution in March to freeze the assets of
mercenaries and weapons dealers who backed ousted Liberian dictator
Charles Taylor. Bout should top that list, French diplomatic sources say.
But the diplomats and UN sources say the United States has been working to
keep Bout off that list.
U.S. officials have indicated unofficially that the reason is that Bout
is useful in Iraq, the sources told IPS.
One of Bout's many companies is providing logistical support to U.S.
forces in Iraq, well-placed French diplomatic sources say. His private
airline British Gulf is supplying goods to the occupation forces, they
say.
In recognition of these services both the U.S. and the British
governments have been opposing French efforts to include Bout in the UN
mercenaries list, the diplomatic sources revealed.
We are disgusted that Bout won't be on the list, even though he is the
principal arms dealer, according to a diplomat involved in the UN
negotiations over that list. If we want peace in that region (West
Africa), it seems evident that Bout should be on that list.
The British government had at first included Bout in its list of
mercenaries, French diplomats say. But he was taken off under U.S.
pressure.
In 2000 Peter Hain, then British foreign office minister responsible
for Africa, described 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.
Now Iraq has become another business location for Bout with no
particular risks attached despite the UN efforts to seize him, French
diplomatic sources say.
Typically, Bout has left few traces of his activities in Iraq. French
officials say British Gulf is soon expected to go under another name now
that it is known to be his. His mercenaries leave few footprints, and if
they die, nobody asks questions about the body bag.
But the UN knows what Bout is about through his activities in Africa.
Viktor Vasilevich Butt, known more commonly as Viktor Bout, is often
referred to in law enforcement circles as 'Viktor B' because he uses at
least five aliases and different versions of his last name, says a UN
Security Council report.
The stocky Bout (37) graduated from the Military Institute of Foreign
Languages in Moscow. He is said to be fluent in at least six languages. He
began his career as an arms dealer in Afghanistan after his air force
regiment was disbanded during the break-up of the former Soviet Union.
According to intelligence documents, he was able to establish close
relationships with several African heads of state and rebel leaders
including the late Angolan rebel leader Jonas Savimbi, former Liberian
president Charles Taylor, former Zairian president Mobutu Sese Seko and
Libyan President Moammar Gadhafi.
He had access to what the African warlords wanted, says André
Velrooy, a Norwegian journalist who investigated Bout's activities for the
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). The end of
the Cold War resulted in a massive amount of surplus weapons and spare
parts being dumped at often very low prices onto the private market.
Bout had the capacity to deliver not only small arms, but also major
weapons systems, and deliver them almost anywhere in the world, Velrooy
reported. And his associates -- ranging from former U.S. military
personnel and Russian officials to African heads of state and organized
crime figures -- gave him a lengthy list of buyers and sellers with whom
to do business.
Bout was the biggest operator in the African arms market. He ran a
myriad of companies employing an estimated 300 people. The companies
operated 40 to 60 aircraft, including the world's largest private fleet of
Russian-made Antonov cargo planes, according to the investigation by ICIJ.
Bout made it almost impossible to trace his activities. He leased
aircraft to other individuals and companies so that he could not directly
be linked to illegal activities. Bout adamantly denies that he was
involved in weapons trafficking, or that he was anything other than a
legitimate air cargo entrepreneur, says Velrooy.
But UN monitors too have accused Bout of shipping contraband weapons to
rebel movements in Angola and Sierra Leone and to the Taylor regime in
Liberia.
The United States and Britain are now using -- and protecting - a
dealer who is also reported to have helped arm the Taliban.
Germany's Der Spiegel newsweekly reported in 2002 that Vadim
Rabinovich, an Israeli of Ukrainian origin along with the former director
of the Ukrainian secret service had sold a consignment of 150 to 200 T-55
and T-62 tanks to the Taliban.
The tanks were believed to have been transported by one of Bout's air
freight companies in a deal conducted through Pakistan's secret service.
The deal was uncovered by the Russian foreign intelligence service SVR in
Kabul, Der Spiegel reported.
The UN backed an international warrant in 2001 for the arrest of Bout.
But Bout enjoys support in high places and has been living comfortably in
Moscow.
That's the problem in dealing with Viktor B, the French daily Le
Monde quoted a French secret service expert as saying. Because Bout has
served so many people, he always has somebody powerful who protects him.
© 2004 Inter Press
Service