Lukashenko’s Links :: Charter'97 :: News

Belarus hasn’t been in the limelight for a while—its appalling human-rights record and disinterest in democratic progress have largely isolated dictator Aleksandr Lukashenko. But Lukashenko’s pariah status has ingratiated him with one world leader: Saddam Hussein. Now their relationship seems to be attracting Western attention once again.

In recent years Belarus has regularly exported goods to Iraq under the U.N. Oil-for-Food Program. But lately Washington has grown concerned that those commercial ties might be concealing a more sinister program: the transfer of illicit arms and technology. Particularly worrying for the U.S. government are the frequent “humanitarian flights” from the Belarus capital of Minsk to Baghdad. Such flights are permitted under the sanctions imposed on Iraq after the gulf war—as long as they don’t contain any goods that might have military applications. U.S. officials suspect that the planes are in fact transporting forbidden arms—and even military experts—to Baghdad.

The Americans have long been complaining to the United Nations about notably vague freight manifests connected with the flights. (On occasion, the same manifests have even been resubmitted for different flights, with only the date changed.) Around two months ago U.S. patience snapped, and Washington appealed to the U.N. Sanctions Committee to prevent one of the flights from taking off. No one will disclose what America suspected was onboard, but the U.S. action did succeed in keeping the plane on the ground in Minsk for several hours before it was allowed to depart. And sources in Minsk say that recent passengers have included senior executives from some of the country’s biggest Soviet-era arms factories. These companies include those that make military optics, tractor-trailers that can be used as mobile missile launchers and high-precision manufacturing equipment.

U.S. fears aren’t entirely unjustified. Before they left Iraq in 1998, U.N. weapons inspectors found prohibited equipment from Belarus in Iraqi military installations. And last year the United States openly scolded Minsk for arms smuggling in breach of U.N. sanctions—as well as for training Iraqi air-defense officers in the use of Russian-made S-300 antiaircraft missiles. Yet another U.S. concern is that Belarus may be serving as middleman for Russian weaponry that the Kremlin—or rogue firms in Russia—wouldn’t dare sell to Iraq openly. Leonid Kozik, one of the Belarus officials who traveled to Iraq last fall, also serves on the board of a Russian-Belarussian company that markets weapons from the two countries. Little Belarus, with its population of just 10 million, is one of the world’s leading importers of Russian weaponry. The Bush administration has been eagerly watching for a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda. Now it seems the Lukashenko connection might be back on its radar.