DRC exports arms to Zimbabwe

DRC exports arms to Zimbabwe - UN

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Posted to the web: 22/12/2008 01:24:41
THE Democratic Republic of Congo re-exported more than 50 tons of ammunition to Zimbabwe earlier this year, according to a recent report by a UN group of experts for the Security Council.

In their report on UN arms trade restrictions on Congo, where factional violence has raged in the East for years, the group also said that arms it believed originated in China had been flown into Congo from Sudan.

The five-person group said that the ammunition sent to Zimbabwe must have first been imported into Congo but did not specifically say it had come from China.

The UN Security Council has imposed an arms embargo on militias operating in eastern Congo. It permits arms supplies to the Congolese government army or FARDC but requires that exporters first notify a UN sanctions committee.

The experts' group said it was "aware of large amounts of ammunition arriving in eastern Congo without any notification by exporters to the sanctions committee" and that the FARDC might be exporting weapons and ammunition to other countries in the region.

"As the Democratic Republic of the Congo does not produce weapons or ammunition, this stock would have been imported to the Democratic Republic of the Congo without notification and then possibly exported in violation of the original end-user agreement with the original exporter," it said.

It said that between Aug. 20 and 22 of this year, a Boeing-707 aircraft carried out two return trips from Congo to the Zimbabwe capital Harare, transporting a total of 53 tons of ammunition destined for the Zimbabwean army.

"While this is not a violation of the arms embargo, it is an indication that the Democratic Republic of the Congo could become a transit point for weapons destined for other countries," it said.

Zimbabwe is suffering from an economic meltdown as well as a months-long political deadlock between the ruling party and the opposition over a proposed unity government.

The UN experts also said that a Congolese Boeing-707 had carried out five flights between Khartoum and the Congolese city of Kisangani to deliver military supplies to the FARDC.

The group said it was "not aware of the required notification to the Security Council by the government of the Sudan" and had "received credible information that the weapons transported originated in China."

The group had written to the Chinese government and was awaiting a reply, it said.

A controversy erupted in April over a shipment of Chinese arms for landlocked Zimbabwe that South African port workers refused to unload. There were conflicting reports over where the arms ended up. Zimbabwe is not under UN sanctions. - Reuters
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