British firm ships arms to South Sudan

From: Stratrisks

Shell companies registered in Britain are among firms involved in the export of armaments which are fuelling the ongoing conflict in South Sudan, Amnesty International warned yesterday. The charity said that T-72 battle tanks used in attacks by the Sudanese armed forces, the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA), had been “clandestinely delivered from Ukraine to South Sudan in 2009, involved transfers via Kenya and Uganda and included shipping companies from Germany and Ukraine and UK and Isle of Man-registered shell companies.”  However the charity stated that the shipping companies had not broken the law. It said: “Indeed inadequacies of the legal regulations on arms shipments currently exclude them from legal responsibility.”


Amnesty warned that a ready flow of military weapons from China, Sudan and Ukraine, including ammunition, small arms, tanks and anti-vehicle mines has triggered indiscriminate attacks by both the South Sudanese armed forces and armed opposition groups.
A report by the organisation – Overshadowed Conflict: Arms Supplies Fuel Violations in Mayom County Unity State – examined the effects of what the charity described as “irresponsible supplies and misuse of weapons, munitions and armaments resulting in civilian casualties and the displacement of thousands of people.”
Scores of people have been killed or injured, had their homes destroyed, or have been forced to flee due to indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas by the SPLA and the armed opposition group, the South Sudan Liberation Army (SSLA), Amnesty said.
A former senior SSLA member apparently told the charity that his forces had received significant numbers of Kalashnikov-type assault rifles “new from the boxes,” as well as ammunition, light and heavy machine-guns, B10 recoilless rifles plus mortars.
Evidence, collected by the charity, suggested that ammunition used by SSLA is manufactured in Sudan and rifles include new Chinese-manufactured Type 56-1 rifles.
Before the first anniversary of South Sudan’s independence and just days before the world’s governments gather for the crucial Arms Trade Treaty negotiations at the UN in New York, Amnesty called for “a strong and robust treaty with rules to end irresponsible arms transfers.”
Amnesty International’s Africa director Erwin van der Borght said: “Governments must immediately stop supplying South Sudan with conventional arms which have been used to commit violations of international humanitarian and human rights law until adequate systems of training and accountability are in place.
“The treaty talks are an unprecedented opportunity to stop arms getting into the hands of human rights abusers. A strong treaty could help prevent many other communities suffering from the horrific cost of the irresponsible arms trade, in the way the people of Mayom County have.”