The Direct Effects of Illicit Arms Trafficking on Civil Wars

Introduction

It is of crucial importance to the international community to have a deep insight of the scope, essence, and origin of illicit arms trafficking for the prevention of future detrimental actions. These are instruments that increase the likelihood of violence and disorder within their regions, embodying a severe threat to global peace and international security. According to the UNDOC approximately 20% of global trade, which equals 230€ million, is marked by their industry. Whereas, a study by the Small Arms Survey reports, the net worth of global trade in illicit arms is over a billion dollars. One has to bear in mind that these are just the official number, just the tip of the iceberg. Their augmenting availability decreases the liability to prevent it to some extent. Arms promote a broad range of human rights violations, among others deprivation of liberty, sexual and nonsexual enslavement, slavery, murder, rape, recruitment of child soldiers, cannibalism, and pillaging. Most vital, illicit arms trafficking fuels civil wars. This paper studies the case of Charles Taylor, a dictator who reigned and incited a civil war in Liberia, which resulted in 250.000 deaths, from 1999-2003. The means and sources he used to fuel the civil war and the methods he used to channel weaponries. External factors will be investigated, such as mercenaries like Guus Van Kouwenhoven, Leonid Minin and Viktor Bout, those who profit from civil wars through arms tradings in conflict areas like Libera. Dubious arms contractors, who illegally equip and and sell weapons to warlords and their forces in conflict areas, are indirectly responsible to the same extent as those who violate any kind of human rights, commit war crimes and other international crimes. By the end of the Cold War it has become much easier to wage war. Many of the weapons in circulation in Africa originate from the remnants of the Cold War, accessible to criminals, arms brokers, former government officials, and highest bidder. These weaponries in turn have been funded by cash or infamously known by “blood diamonds”. By making use of several documents and reports enclosed by the UN and other sources, this paper will try to prove the direct effects illicit arms trafficking has on civil wars.

Prologue

Founded in 1822, Liberia was Africa’s first republic, the first independent country in Africa during the era of Western colonization. The aspired harvest of the American Colonization Society yielded success, as Liberia served as an outpost for freed slaves from the Americas it grew into a colony. After gaining independence in 1847, the colony was proclaimed the Free Independent Republic of Liberia. The minority, the heir of the freed slaves, remained in political and social power, whereas the majority, the indigenous people of Liberia is made up of 16 different ethnic groups, experienced an unequal distribution of power and wealth until 1980. Staying in office for 27 years president William Tubman died and vice president William Tolbert succeeded him. Tolbert strived to grant more indigenous people a stance in Liberia’s politics and government, rising tension within his own administration. A proposition to increase rice prices, while the Tolbert family monopolized the rice market, led to several riots in 1979. One year later as Tolbert became vulnerable Army Master Sergeant Samuel Doe, belonging to the indigenous population, triumphed in a coup d’etat, resulting in Tolbert’s death and the execution of thirteen of his cabinet representatives. Doe, being an illiterate president, was paranoid and believed he is facing threat within the People’s Redemption Council, as a result, several comrades were executed and three of his colleagues fled including his Head of the General Service Agency (Charles Taylor). In 1985 elections were conducted because of the pressure put by international organizations on Doe, still, Samuel Doe won the election. Followed by a failed coup by Thomas Quiwonkpa the augmented brutality within Nimba County made Charles Taylor recognize an opportunity to overthrow the government.

Liberia encountered seven detrimental years of civil wars between 1989 and 1996 caused by the uneven balance of Americo-Liberian/ former slaves and the indigenous African ethnic groups. On December 1989, Charles Taylor infiltrated Nimba County aided by National Patriotic Front of Liberia (NPFL) and other adversaries of Doe. Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) peacekeeping force, ECOMOG, intruded in the end to cease the conflict. Doe was captured and killed the coming next year at ECOMOG’s headquarters by his former colleague Prince Yormie Johnson (aide to Quiwonkpa) who just formed the Independent National Patriotic Front (INPFL). A futile trial to bring an end to the fighting and restore order by ECOWAS left the destructive country with no habitualness and no civil society. In July 1997, Taylor won the elections with 75% of the votes. For most people, it was the only hope to avoid more bloodshed. As an outcome of Taylor’s support in Sierra Leone's brutal Revolutionary United Front (RUF), the UN imposed sanctions on the Liberian government. The sanctions include the ban of trading diamonds and the import of arms. In northern Lofa County, a new rebel group emerged, Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD). While fighting the AFL in 1999, by 2000 it gained control on most parts of the countryside and by 2003 LURD controlled two-thirds of the country. The AFL and LURD were accused of ubiquitous human rights abuses and the recruitment of child soldiers. Within the same year, August 2003, as the combat got tenser Taylor accepted an ECOWAS-brokered peace deal in Ghana on armed conflict in Liberia. He was forced to resign as the president and went into exile in Nigeria. President Olusegun Obasanjo offered asylum in Nigeria where Taylor remained for three years. Later on, in 2006, he was dismissed by Obasanjo as the newly elected Liberian government asked for his detention. On March 29, 2006, Taylor was captured at the Nigeria-Cameroon border and was delivered to Liberia.

Taylor was taken into UN detention and was handed over to an international court in the Hague to be sentenced to fifty years in prison for charges on a 17-count indictment for war crimes, crimes against humanity and violations of Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions. What he left behind was the world’s poorest nation and the robbed soules of about 250.000 people.

The Illicit Arms Trade

The illicit trade in arms is a global enterprise across Africa coming from major arms manufacturing countries. Approximately 10% to 20% of the global trade is covered by these transactions. A research conducted by Brian Wood and Johan Peleman found out, in Africa most of the illicit small arms that are in circulation originate from Israel, China, and more than 20 OSCE members. Other than that, African authorized arms producing corporations are closely controlled by national governments, though a small fraction of their own manufactured goods still lands on the black market. According to the UN Expert Panel, Sierra Leone’s RUF and Liberia’s Charles Taylor regularly bought and sold arms to each other on the black market. Another source of illicit arms in conflict areas is the unlicensed manufacturing of arms by local gunsmiths, owning the necessary means and competences to produce up to 200.000 arms annually in Ghana found by Emmanuel Kwesi. For the acquiring of illicit arms, other mediums and means are made use of, such as stealing from state arsenals, forces, and UN soldiers or buying them from corrupt soldiers. Since the weight of small arms is quite light there are infinite ways of smuggling them. Firearms provided to the RUF were transported across borders mainly in trucks by Liberia’s dictator Taylor. Foot-soldiers, rebels, and others also carry them across borders. Predominantly, the leftovers of weapons from small to a large scale of the Cold War are shipped to the conflict areas mostly by arms brokers. For example, in 1999 the remains of the Cold War, a 68 ton consignment containing 50 machine guns, 25 RPG’s, few anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles and 3000 assault rifles, was shipped to Liberia and Sierra Leone. Moreover, cross-border arms trafficking by governments and armed forces is also prevalent, thus civil wars easily turn into regional wars. According to reports enclosed by the Small Arms Survey, Liberian rebels traded their weapons for motorcycles at the Ivorian border, while the Ivorian rebel group traded the weapons for food and other life-essential goods in Ghana and Mali. Then there are the notoriously known gun-runners or “merchants of death”, those who illegally ship or fly the guns to warzones and dictators. Intercontinental business is negotiated by international brokers and imported in conflict regions through aircraft like military cargo planes. International brokers successfully complete these businesses by having corrupt officials on their payroll, false paperwork, and shell companies to shield their other company’s liability or surveillance. For instance, in July 2000, Leonid Minin, a Ukrainian middleman operating for African warlords, enclosed a signed Ivorian End-User Certificate. As a result, a shipment of 5 million 7.62mm ammunition from Ukraine to the Ivory Coast was inspected by the United Nations and seemed legal. From there, cartridges were smuggled by another of Minin’s plane to Charles Taylor, during Liberia’s embargo time. In 2001, according to the UN Expert Panel approximately 500 assault rifles, grenade launchers, and machine guns were shipped to a Somali rebel leader. A merchant of arms, Taylor’s supplier and supporter of his regime, Viktor Bout, was named Taylor’s accomplice by the UN. By several front companies and aliases (owning five passports) Bout was able to complete contracts among the world without any trouble. He channeled weapons by the tons of any kind: tanks, helicopters, RPGs, machine guns, by using his own air cargo company. The Treasury statement reported Bout was responsible for fueling conflicts and helping UN sanctioned governments. Lastly, Taylor’s devoted friend and business partner, the notorious timber trader and gun-runner Guus Van Kouwenhoven fueled and profited from the civil war as well. As Bout, the Dutchman Mr. Guus also equipped Taylor’s army with weapons. A report to the Security Council states that Mr. Guus also managed the logistics of smuggling arms from Liberia into Sierra Leone. 

Aftermath

The trigger for the deaths, injuries, and displacement of societies in African conflict zones were illicit small arms. Their availability causes economic regression in terms of the destruction of food production and distribution processes - hunger and malnutrition are the consequences. For example, the civil war in Liberia has resulted in about 250.000 deaths, hundreds of thousands of refugees while thousands more are raped and torn from their families especially young girls enslaved for sexual purposes. Others were barbarously mutilated, their only means for survival- their hands- were cut off, mostly by drugged child soldiers carrying AK-47’s, who were unconscious of the actions and events, led by immoral warlords such as Charles Taylor. These wars have been fought primarily with illicit small arms. At the continental level, no legal body in Africa controls and monitors the arms trade. Whereas some African governments lack the means to regulate the borders others struggle to secure their arsenals. The Small Arms Survey provides evidence that small arms are responsible for 60% to 90% of deaths and result in hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of injuries annually. It is knowingly demanding to find exact data in countries of frequent conflict like Liberia and Sierra Leone but in few African countries, numbers are reliable.  Until the 1990s cattle rustling was a feature of rural life in Kenya and Uganda but since the rustlers acquired illicit small arms things changed dramatically, the deaths of hundreds and the displacement of thousands. The 2005 Human Development Report stated: “Insecurity linked to armed conflict remains one of the greatest obstacles to human development. It is both a cause and a consequence of mass poverty”. Furthermore, they found out African countries, those experiencing the lowest levels of human development, over 50% have been exposed to a large extent of armed violence, resulting in conflicts since 1990. Essentially, the origins of breaching the arms embargoes were greed and national interest. For instance, Liberia and Sierra Leone were accused of breaching the arms trade embargo. The EU and some member states have taken measures to prevent gun-runners/ arms brokers from doing business in conflict areas like putting them on the watch lists or arresting them.

During Charles Taylor’s trial a 17-count indictment for war crimes, crimes against humanity and violations of Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions and other international humanitarian crimes has been reduced to a 11-count indictment for war crimes, crimes against humanity and violations of Article 3 common to the Geneva Conventions and other international humanitarian crimes under Article 2, 3, 4 and 15 of the Rome Statute. Taylor individually has been charged for sexual and nonsexual slavery, rape, murder, war crimes according to the Article 6.1 and 6.3 of the Rome Statute such as terrorism, deprivation of liberty, inhuman treatment, manslaughter, recruitment of child soldiers and plundering. In the trial witnesses’ rights have often been neglected, hindering the progress of the Prosecution case. Being still very popular in the area, those testifying against Charles Taylor such as crime-base witnesses and insider witnesses were threatened and intimidated in Liberia and Sierra Leone. The Prosecution’s efforts to prove Taylor’s motive to politically and physically control the territory of Sierra Leone by terror, starting in 1991 as the Taylor’s NPFL first invaded the region. The program to establish a subordinate government to promote the exploitation of its abundant natural resources could never be validated due to insufficient evidence argued by the Defence Counsel, the reason for the abatement of the allegations.

Blood Diamonds Fund Civil Wars

Blood in exchange for diamonds. The sale and trade of diamonds fueled Liberia’s more than a decade lasting civil war, from 1989-2003. The purchase of weapons and munitions through diamonds left about 250,000 civilians dead in Liberia, the reason for the ubiquitous term “blood diamonds” or “conflict diamonds”. The term conflict diamond has been defined by the United Nations as follows: “Conflict diamonds are diamonds that originate from areas controlled by forces or factions opposed to legitimate and internationally recognized governments, and are used to fund military action in opposition to those governments, or in contravention of the decisions of the Security Council.” In 1991, the rebel group in Sierra Leone (RUF), Liberia’s neighboring country, started a war against their government, raising global attention. A reaction followed, the UN banned the export of diamonds from Sierra Leone but with Taylor’s support, they conveyed the diamonds through Liberia. Taylor himself engaged in the business, he traded weapons and training for blood diamonds as the request of transferring these diamonds increased rapidly. Taylor’s interest to control the diamond resources in Sierra Leone arose from the financial needs to fuel his own civil war in Liberia. The RUF seized one of the richest diamond fields in the word, made the people of Sierra Leone mine for them, and exchanged them for military and logistical resources in Liberia, thus a link was created between the two civil wars. Orphans and street children aged averagely around 12 were mostly forced into work, having no option, they suffered from several illnesses such as damaged fingertips and blisters, exhaustion, headaches, and malaria. It is estimated the mining of these diamonds were about 200 to 250 million dollars annually. By smuggling them through borders it becomes quite difficult to trace back the origin of the blood diamonds, making them indistinguishable from legitimate ones. Ultimately they reach the world market and money flows in conflict areas like the one in Liberia, 1999-2003. On January 25, 2001, the Security Council found out the Liberian government favored these transactions as it helped the economy to grow despite the harm it has on children fighting and searching for these diamonds. As a result, in order to stop fueling the civil war, the Resolution 1343 in March of 2001 has been signed which led to the UN placing an embargo on the transaction of diamonds and weapons as soon as Liberia’s standing in this illicit trade was identified.

Conclusion

During Taylor’s reign, a campaign of terror was waged. A campaign which resulted in 250.000 lives and hundreds of thousands of displacement. On massive scale amputations, mob raped young girls, sexual enslavement, pillaging, burnt houses and civilians, murder, massacre, and cannibalism to maintain the control over diamonds for the end to fund the war with illicit arms. The lives that are at stake for the search of these diamonds led to the terms of “blood diamonds” or “conflict diamonds”. The Small Arms Survey provides evidence that small arms are responsible for 60% to 90% of deaths and result in hundreds of thousands of deaths and millions of injuries annually. According to the UN Expert Panel arms brokers like Leonid Minin, Viktor Bout, and Guus Van Kouwenhoven fuel the civil wars by their consignments. They mainly profited from the remnants of the Cold War, cheap in weights calculated arms were shipped or flown with the help of corrupt officials, front companies and dubious certificates. But they are not the only suppliers of illicit arms, approximately 10% to 20% of the global trade is linked by these businesses. Authorized African manufactured arms land on the black market or unauthorized local gunsmiths produce these arms. Additionally, there are limitless approaches to acquiring them as theft or through corrupt soldiers. Plus, their transport in terms of smuggling within Africa is less complicated, infantrymen carry them across borders or trucks that enable the transfer across borders.

Taylor’s trial has become the blueprint and exemplary for future prosecutions of dictators in international criminal justice, as back in time dictators were not held accountable for their actions. Liberia and Sierra Leone by Taylor’s backing are ideal samples of hundreds of thousands of destroyed lives. The overwhelming desire for the exploitation of societies and countries by illicit arms financed with conflict diamonds resemble their inhumane greed.