Cost of taking life in Iraq put at $2.40
By Stephen Fidler in Washington
Published: June 14 2006 22:43
Cheap, high-quality ammunition is becoming widely available on the
Baghdad black market, much of it smuggled in from eastern Europe,
according to a report published on Thursday by Oxfam.
In a section of a report on the global ammunition market, the charity
says the price of bullets for AK-47 assault rifles has fallen to an
average of $0.30 (€0.24, £0.16) in Baghdad. This compares with $1.50 a
round in Somalia during recent fighting.
Given that victims are killed by between four and 12 bullets, the cost
of taking away a life in Baghdad is now $2.40, the report says.
An analysis in the UK of bullets bought in Baghdad by Doctors for Iraq
found that ammunition for 9mm semi-automatic pistols and for AK-47s
originated from factories in China, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic,
Hungary, Romania, Russia and Serbia. There were also pre-2003 Iraqi-made
bullets.
Examples included a round manufactured by the Serbian Prvi Partisan
plant and in 2004 by the Czech company Sellior and Bellot.
Weak controls and poor transparency make it hard to determine how the
imp-orted bullets arrived in the country.
The report says they were most likely either smuggled into Iraq through
neighbouring countries or leaked from abundant supplies imported to
equip the new Iraqi security forces.
Millions of rounds have been imported from Serbia and Bosnia under
contracts organised on behalf of the US State Department. The report
cites one airline company that said it had made more than 60 flights of
arms and ammunition to Iraq in the past two years.
“It is possible therefore that the bullet of Serbian origin found its
way into the Iraqi black market via this route,” the report says.
When Saddam Hussein was ousted in 2003, there were an estimated 20m
weapons in Iraq. Since then millions more are thought to have entered
the country.
The annual global output of ammunition for small arms is now estimated
at 10bn-14bn rounds – 33m bullets a day. The report’s release precedes a
United Nations conference on the illicit trade in small arms, which
begins in New York on June 26.
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