British Customs officials are to launch an inquiry into the sale of jet fighters which look likely to be involved in military operations against civilians and rebels in one of Africa’s bloodiest civil wars.
An investigation has revealed a loophole allowing potentially lethal British military hardware to slip out of the country without official scrutiny, licence or control.
The sale of the two Strikemaster jets to the Ivory Coast government discloses a trail which begins with a British air display pilot and ends with a former commando in the French special forces now plying his trade as a mercenary in the war-torn state.
It will come as a further embarrassment to the British government following recent revelations of how British tanks and planes were used by the Indonesian military to suppress a popular uprising.
The Strikemaster is one of the most successful fighters made in Britain. Fitted with two machine-guns and wings designed to carry 3 000lb of bombs or rockets, it is well suited for counter-insurgency, ground attacks and advanced pilot training.
Its acrobatic displays are popular at airshows. But it is these very qualities which allowed it to be sold quietly through a Yorkshire aviation firm to Ivory Coast.
Concerns were first raised in March this year after a plane-spotter published his photograph of a Strikemaster at a Maltese airport in freshly painted Ivory Coast livery.
The investigation found that the jet had been used by its then owner, UK pilot Tom Moloney, in airshows across Europe. Because the plane had been disarmed, it was registered as a civilian plane.
Earlier this year Moloney was approached by Sheffield businessman Jurgen Morton-Hall. He told Moloney he wanted to buy his Strikemaster and another similar plane for a company which would use them for film and display work in South Africa.
Morton-Hall’s client was called Strikemaster Films. But although the company has a London address it was set up specifically to buy the two fighter planes and was run by two French directors, one of them Jean-Jacques Fuentes.
Fuentes is a former pilot with the French special forces who worked for several years as a mercenary. In 1999 he was flying missions for the African intervention force, Ecomog, in Sierra Leone.
Fuentes said he had wanted the jets for film work but the deal collapsed. He was then approached by the Ivory Coast government.
He claims the aircraft will be used for reconnaissance flights and for training pilots. He insists that the planes are too old to be rearmed.
Yet it is clear the jets will be used by the military in a region facing huge unrest. According to Amnesty International, refugees from neighbouring Liberia are pouring into Ivory Coast and many are being indiscriminately killed by the military.
Despite this, the jets were sold as civilian planes without an export licence. Had Fuentes applied for a licence, the sale could have been vetoed by Britain’s Department of Trade and Industry (DTI).
A DTI spokesperson said: ”These are clearly military aircraft which will be used for military operations and the seller should have obtained export licences. It is up to Customs and Excise to now investigate the transaction.”
A spokesperson for Britain’s customs department confirmed it would be looking at the case ”very thoroughly”. Molony and Morton-Hall claim they had no knowledge of the Ivory Coast deal.
Paul Eavis of the Saferworld think-tank says the case exposes a dangerous loophole.
He said: ”This case raises serious questions about how many other people might be undertaking similar activities. The government must pursue this case and make sure this type of scandal can’t happen again.” – Guardian Unlimited Â