South African companies are involved in dumping illegal weapons in conflict-ridden areas in Africa, an Amnesty International researcher said on Tuesday.
”In one recent example, an air-freight company operating from Johannesburg International Airport helped fly several hundred tonnes of weapons into the Great Lakes region,” said Brian Wood, the organisation’s research manager on the arms and security trade.
He said criminals were attracted to South Africa’s ”sophisticated transport and banking services”.
Amnesty had reported the matter to the South African authorities and other governments involved, said Wood.
The South African government had managed to ”chase some of them away”.
However, he said although Amnesty had supplied a lot of evidence against specific companies and people, ”not a single one had been prosecuted”.
In fact, some of the implicated companies had even been hired to fly supplies to South African peacekeeping forces on the continent.
Wood was talking in Johannesburg, where Amnesty International was releasing a report on the impact of guns on women’s lives. He said Amnesty was also worried about arms proliferation in Africa.
”The African continent is a dumping ground for surplus arms and ammunitions that European countries don’t want any more.” – Sapa