Wednesday, March 13th 2002: Documents from 1997-1998 Confirm Romania's Involvement in the International Arms Exports Scandal - Otopeni Airport, a Stopover for Arms Traffickers
Sorin Ozon, Stefan Candea, Sorin
Cehan
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Arms trafficking to international
conflict zones has involved our country, even if Romanian leaders deny any involvement.
One of the means by which Romania joined the carousel of arms trafficking was
to allow the use of Otopeni military airport [near Bucharest] as a stopover
by air companies controlled by smugglers. The second means, which is much more
serious, is actual shipments of arms to countries near conflict areas. Those
weapons had free passage to penetrate countries under the embargo.
Romtehnica Loaded Arms for Rwanda
On 10 April 1997, Romtehnica military technology public corporation loaded the following on an AN-124 airplane, which belonged to the Romanian company Acvila Air Romanian Carrier: 12.7-mm machine guns, 7.62-mm machine-gun pistols, tubes, cartridges, and so on. They shipment went to Kigali, Rwanda. Five days later, on 15 April 1997, another Acvila Air plane flew the same route, and the shipment was resumed the next day.
Viktor Bout Was There, of Course
[Also at Otopeni] shipments were made through other air companies by the notorious Russian trafficker Viktor Bout. The story begins in 1995, when one of Bout's air companies, Air Service Charter, purchased a Boeing 707 plane registered in Liberia, and began to use it to ship arms. Western intelligence services later discovered that this plane made several illegal flights: in November 1999, flight ACH 252 F took off from Bulgaria. Loaded with surface-to-air missiles, it landed in Harare, Zimbabwe. There, the goods were taken aboard an Ilyushin plane and shipped to Kinshasa, Congo, a country under the arms embargo. On 15 March 2000, flight ACH 007 took off from Bratislava, Slovakia for Harare: it was filled with AK-47 machine-guns. In 1996, they used Sky Air (derived from Bout's mother-company, Air Service Charter) to ship AK-47 machine-guns from Bulgaria to Kigali, Rwanda on a Boeing 707, registered as EL-JNS. But, much more serious than that, the plane belonging to Sky Air was seen several times in 1996-1998 on the military apron of Otopeni airport. In the documents we have, the same Boeing 707 registered as EL-JNS is recorded as having landed at Otopeni military airport on 1 May 1998. More, on 9 December 1996, another notorious arms dealer, Simen Herscovici alias Shim'on Na'or, shipped arms using the same plane that belonged to Sky Air. The departure point was Bucharest.
The Belgian Connection
Another arms shipment ring having links to Otopeni military airport is the one created by Belgian Ronald Rossignol. He started a company called Occidental Airlines. Under the cover of humanitarian aid, it shipped military uniforms, an armored personnel carrier, and radio station equipment to rebels in Angola in August 1997, using a Boeing 707 owned by a Cypriot firm, Avistar Airlines. In December 1998 the same plane was seen shipping arms and munitions from Slovakia to Sudan. According to the documents we have, this plane has been seen at Otopeni several times. For example, on 23 February 1997, the plane was on the military apron at Otopeni.
In 1995, Bout established Trans Aviation Network Group as a branch of Air Service Charter, based at Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. A Liberian company was part of this this operation. It has a few planes, including a DC-8 based in Uganda. That plane has been seen at Otopeni several times.
Romtehnica Makes Excuses
Contacted by telephone, Aurel
Nemes, deputy director of Romtehnica, told us, "It is not the exporter's
duty to monitor arms use after delivery. The exporter must make sure that the
beneficiary sends a certificate confirming the delivery; that certificate must
be sent no more than four months after the transaction. In the certificate,
the
beneficiary pledges not to change the destination of the purchased arms."