Belarus – Leading Supplier of Arms to Muslim Secessionists in Middle East and Balkans :: Charter'97 :: News

According to information, obtained by Israeli correspondent of Press-Center.Ru Kirill Gluzman from the competent Israeli sources, Belarus is shipping ammunition to the extremists. Israeli special services found out that Palestinian separatists start rarely using their own mortars for shelling the territory of Israel and switch over to foreign models. The huge cargo of mine-throwers, intercepted by Israeli forces, enabled them to trace the “Producer-Customer” link. As believed by experts from Europe and Israel Belarus is number one supplier of weaponry to the Muslim militants in Middle East and Balkans.

Over the past 6 months alone Belarus reached deals on arms sales with Arabic countries, Palestinians and Albanian guerillas, worth 600mln. dollars in total.

Iraqi Air Force purchased from Belarus radar stations, modernized air defense systems and liaison equipment, which enhanced the capacity and effectiveness of their troops. All the consignment was smuggled to Iraq and installed by the Belarusian specialists on the spot.

During the recent ceasefire between the Palestinian autonomy and Israel, Palestinians bought from Belarus a great number of 120mm mortars and shells to them, anti-tank and anti-rocket missiles, automatic weapons and ammunition.

Albanian guerillas from the KLO (Kosovo Liberation Army), who have invaded Macedonia a while ago, also used the short armistice for their own profit. Belarus shipped to them tommy-guns, machine-guns, mortars, anti-tank mines and huge amount of ammunition.

Even Iran, which usually acquires the weaponry from Russia addressed Belarus in search of ballistic missile systems, which Russia fears to sell to Iran.

In order to attract clients Belarus uses undercover channels of shipping contraband arms. With the assistance of former deputy Defense Minister of Croatia Libo Rojes, Belarusians launched and control a broad network of arms sales in Middle East and Balkans. It is through Rojes, who brokers the contracts, that the agents find customers and carry out their deals.

Two main sources of weaponry in Belarus are – Soviet arms and some models of their own, and of course, Russia. Belarus, just as any other post-Soviet republic, accumulated tons of former Soviet weapons and ammunition. Islamic terrorists are their favorite market – they are always ready to buy it and pay with hard currency, earned through oil or drug trade.

While Palestinians and Albanians are quite pleased with outdated guns, such powerful rogues as Iraq and Iran require more sophisticated military equipment – such as ballistic missiles, versatile radar complexes etc. Most of such high-profile weaponry, shipped to Baghdad from Minsk, was manufactured in Russia, whereas Belarus only acted as mediator in the deal.

The situation with Iran is more complicated. Iran is willing to purchase such sophisticated weaponry, which Russia doesn’t want to sell, while Belarus simply doesn’t have it. We only have to wait and see how Lukashenko’s going to cope with the problem – Iran’s agents arrived to Minsk in early June, but there has been no clear answer from Belarus yet.

Anyway, both Palestinian and Albanian insurgents enjoy quite an easy access to Belarusian war arsenal: Albanians do it owing to NATO, while Palestinians owing to the lack of action on behalf of Israel, which could be a temporary phenomenon though.