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DPA. 5 January 2002. Belarus seen as top supplier of arms to Moslem
extremists.
[NOTE - by Rick Rozoff:
What the CIA lacks in imagination it more than makes up for with
psychotic delusions. Having failed to topple Belarus President
Lukashenko in a Yugoslav-style Western-engineered coup last year, it now
resorts to the universal panacea: Branding him and
his government as supporters of international terrorism.
Observe the Company's 'logic': Because Belarus supplied military
equipment to the legitimate government of Tajikistan several years ago
*to combat religious extremists,* it's responsible for the extremists
capturing the weapons. How would this curious principle apply to the
Taliban coming into possession of US Stinger missiles?
As for Belarus supplying weapons to the Western-armed KLA and its
numerous offshoots, the CIA is being far too modest. We all know who
deserves credit for that operation.]
MINSK -- Belarus is the largest supplier of weapons to Islamic radicals,
according to sources at the United States Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) and the Israeli intelligence journal DEBKA.
In the first half of 2001 alone, Belarus signed weapons deals with Arab,
Palestinian and Albanian Moslem extremists for more than 500 million
dollars, the sources say.
It seems the last dictatorship in Europe is playing a key role in
supplying Islamic radicals and terrorists in Central Asia, the Middle
East and the Balkans with weapons and military equipment. As a former
Soviet republic that inherited huge amounts of military equipment when
the Soviet Union collapsed and has expanded and upgraded its existing
weapons producing facilities, Belarus is well-placed to maintain its
yearly rank as a top-ten weapons exporting country to the Third World.
Belarus, with a population of only 10 million people, has 1,700 T- 72
tanks, intelligence documents obtained by DPA reveal. Poland, which
shares a border with Belarus and is a new member of the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization NATO, has four times the population but just half
that number of tanks.
"Belarus is one of the most secretive countries in its weapons deals and
probably one of the most irresponsible countries you can think of," says
Siemon Wezemen describing the situation. Wezemen is an expert on arms
exports and weapons proliferation at the SIPRI institute in Stockholm, a
highly respected scientific foundation devoted to peace research.
The fact that Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko has led his country
into international isolation and has been condemned and ostracized by
the West for his undemocratic and authoritarian behavior has provided
another impetus for him to sell weapons to countries and organizations
that are unfriendly to the United States and Western Europe.
As official information from Minsk on arms exports is shrouded in
secrecy, Western observers must base their assessments on intelligence
documents, information obtained from intelligence analysts and diplomats
as well as East European military and political journals with sources
close to the Belarusian arms trade.
The influential Polish political news journal Wprost, for example,
reports that as far back as 1994, in Lukashenko's first year as
president, Belarus supplied Tajikistan with machine guns and armored
vehicles - equipment which quickly found its way into the hands of
Islamic fighters engaged in civil war in neighboring Afghanistan.
Wprost also reports that Belarus, in violation of U.N. Security Council
resolutions, has helped the Iraqi Air Force with modernizing its
anti-aircraft systems by supplying military hardware such as SA-3
missile components along with equipment used to modernize Iraq's air
defense network.
While Lukashenko has strongly denied the allegations that he has
supplied weaponry to Iraq, Wezeman notes: "I would not be surprised if
Belarus was giving technical assistance."
The efforts of Lukashenko to earn much-needed hard currency for
Belarus's anemic economy - one of the poorest in Europe - appear to have
no limits as the country indiscriminately sells weapons to anyone
willing to pay - especially Islamic militants who cannot procure weapons
through legal and ordinary channels.
As sources at the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency suggest and the
Israeli intelligence journal DEBKA reported, Belarus has supplied Moslem
Albanian rebels fighting in Kosovo and Macedonia with machine guns,
mortars, anti-tank mines and large quantities of ammunition.
These rebels have made good use of this equipment in their fight against
Serbia and Macedonia - two Slavic countries who are key Russian allies
in the Balkans. In such a light it seems ironic that as Russia's most
ardent public supporter in its military campaign against Islamic freedom
fighters in Chechnya, Lukashenko is such a crucial supplier of lethal
military equipment for the Islamic world.
As combating fundamental Islamic terrorism appears to be the lynchpin of
Russia's new relationship with the West, some European observers hope
that Moscow will use its overwhelming political and economic leverage on
Lukashenko to put an end to Belarus's military sales to the radical
Islamic world.
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