The defence ministry is investigating Armscor’s mysterious shipment of AK47s to Yemen — which may originally have been intended for Unita. By Eddie Koch, Paul Stober and Stefaans Brummer
A CLANDESTINE consignment of AK47 assault rifles sent to Yemen by Armscor officials has opened new tensions between Defence Minister Joe Modise and conservative elements in the South African military establishment and defence force.
Modise last week criticised senior Armscor officials after it was uncovered that the armaments company had sent a ship-load of assault rifles to Yemen in violation of government policy that prohibits weapons from being sold to countries affected by civil war.
Senior sources in the Defence Ministry said Modise and his deputy minister, Ronnie Kasrils, were disgruntled by the explanation received from Armscor and demanded a more thorough investigation into the attempted sale.
Armscor’s statements that the weapons were destined for Lebanon were blown out of the water this week when the Lebanese embassy in South Africa dismissed any suggestion that its government had purchased the weapons from South Africa.
The WM&G is also in possession of a telex, sent by the captain of the ship carrying the consignment to his head office, which shows the ship docked earlier this month in Yemen and was waiting for instructions about when to offload its cargo of war material.
The head of the Lebanese embassy in South Africa, Charbel Stephan, described the documents Armscor produced to prove that Lebanon was the buyer as “false and counterfeit”.
“The documents had no reference number. They were undated. And they had a signature with no name beneath it. The mission has established that neither the Lebanese minister of defence or the Reserve Bank authorised such a deal,” he said.
The consignment is reported to consist of 8 596 AK47s, 15 665 G3 rifles and more than 14-million rounds of ammunition. Last week the WM&G disclosed — despite official pronouncement from Armscor that the weapons were going to Lebanon — that the guns were waiting to be off-loaded in Yemen.
According to the manager of Elite Shipping, the company transporting the cargo, Yemeni officials opened boxes marked “special goods”. When they discovered that they were filled with weapons, the ship was ordered not to unload.
The ship and its cargo are expected in Port Elizabeth on Saturday. Shipping sources confirmed that the vessel carrying the weapons, the Danish Arktis Pioneer, was never in Lebanon.
Modise received a preliminary briefing about the fiasco from two Armscor board members late last week. According to sources, Modise was not satisfied with their explanation that the arms were supposed to go to Lebanon when reports to the contrary surfaced. He ordered a full investigation and told them to go back and “produce a full and convincing report”.
Sources said Modise, who was upset about not being told of the deal, was angry about what he took to be the board’s attempts to mislead him with the Lebanon story.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has also become involved in the matter after the Lebanese mission requested it to investigate.
Armscor spokes-man Don Henning insisted the corporation stood by its Lebanon story, but conceded: “The investigation into the whole matter is continuing.”
Military and arms-trade research-ers have indicated that the consignment may have originally been put together for Unita.
Military experts say the low price tag on the shipment indicates that politics, not profit, was the motive for the transaction.
It now appears that the defence ministry and top Armscor officials may have been misled by conservative elements in the military establishment determined to supply old allies with weapons.
Sources active in Angola reported that Unita was looking for AK47s and other automatic weapons in April or May this year. The sources said they understood Armscor had agreed to supply the weapons but the deal collapsed when Unita could not raise the necessary money.
Sources in the arms trade say that the since the Yemen deal collapsed, a similar consignment of weapons has come on to the market. The WM&G has a fax, allegedly from an arms broker, offering the “frustrated cargo list, apparently bound for Yemen” to a potential buyer in South Africa.
The United Nations placed an embargo on weapons supplies to Unita in September last year, asking all states to “act strictly in accordance with the resolution”. Armscor has gone on record as saying it respects the embargo.