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TITLE: Helicopters For Sale Under Noses of S-For Troops |
AUTHOR: Giles Tremlett |
PUB: Gaurdian |
DATE: April 19, 2001 |
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Officers in the Bosnian Serb army are offering armaments, including heavy weapons such as helicopters, for sale to guerrilla and terrorist groups around the world, according to a documentary by an undercover Spanish team. Posing as drug traffickers buying arms for a Colombian paramilitary group, the film makers from El Mundo TV were taken round an air base at Banja Luka, in the Bosnian Serb Republic, and shown Gazelle helicopters for sale. The documentary, the second part of an investigation into arms smuggling from the Bosnian Serb Republic, was broadcast on Spain's Antena 3 channel last night. Reporters from El Mundo TV were taken into the UN-controlled air base by a Bosnian Serb officer who later negotiated the sale of two helicopters for $2m (#1.4m) each. The documentary team was told by Veljko Borovina, the arms dealer who sent them to Banja Luka, that military instructors could be sent to Colombia to provide "technical backup". Mr Borovina, who is wanted by Bosnian Serb authorities in connection with the murder of a police officer, said police in the Bosnian Serb Republic would not stop any arms deals. "They do what we say. We are the strongest people around here," he said. He claimed that his arms smuggling gang had the backing of the former Bosnian Serb president, Radovan Karadzic, and the former Bosnian Serb commander, General Ratko Mladic. Both would be there to help "if anything goes wrong". The two men are wanted by the war crimes tribunal in the Hague. Mr Borovina suggested that much of the arms and drugs trade being run from the Bosnian Serb Republic was being handled by Americans. He did not say whether he was referring to US military personnel serving in the S-For peace force in Bosnia. He suggested that his clients find Spanish military personnel "who could carry the goods in their trucks to the port". The Spanish army is also present in S-For. He added: "The Americans are the ones who distribute most of the arms and drugs in this territory, so it would be better if they did not know and try to get in the way." UN authorities in Bosnia admitted yesterday that the allegations made by El Mundo TV were serious but disagreed about whose job it would be to investigate. "Any allegations of local police involved in arms smuggling would be viewed very seriously," said Kate Frieson, a spokeswoman for the UN mission in Bosnia Herzegovina in Sarajevo which is responsible for advising and monitoring local police. But she said the involvement of Bosnian Serb army personnel would have to be investigated by S-For. An S-For spokesman agreed that the force was in charge of controlling Bosnian Serb army installations and held inventories of the weapons there. But he said arms smuggling was a police matter. UN sources in Banja Luka said the arms traffickers would have had trouble removing two helicopters, as local air space was controlled by S-For and an inventory had been made of Bosnian Serb armaments. Mr Borovina had already agreed to sell the supposed drug traffickers Kalashnikov rifles, M-84 machine guns, pistols, explosives and grenades for #1.5m. He boasted of a previous arms deal carried out by associates, also related to Mr Karadzic, with the Real IRA. Mr Borovina suggested that arms could be supplied from Belgrade, but if the arms were intended for the Basque separatist group Eta rather than the Colombian paramilitaries, they would have to come from the Bosnian Serb Republic. This, he implied, would prevent future problems between Madrid and Belgrade. He asked for half the payment in cocaine, saying that the Bosnian Serb mafias wanted to move in on the drugs trade. END |