The Dealers Are Coming

The Yugoslav territory provides ideal conditions for arms smuggling. Almost everyone is buying and selling arms at present (Macedonia is to follow suit). Moving out the army inventories to Serbia and Montenegro will soon result in arms saturation and they will later have to be sold. Namely, the Third Balkan war has destroyed all the old strategic concepts. They have proved to be inadequate for conflicts of this kind. The transformation of the army from being a defence armed force into a civil war army calls for the appropriate transformation of the arms arsenal. Hence the Balkans remain the promised land for arms dealers.

States and governments take up 99% of the arms trade. Germany is the unavoidable factor here, for two reasons: as the biggest European producer and exporter and as the owner of the biggest arms warehouse in the world at present - the one that belonged to the former East German army (NVA: Nationale Volksarmee). But Germany is not the only country to be selling its arms potential; Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Romania are doing the same, along with the former USSR. Arms supplies from all these countries were flooding Yugoslavia in the past two years; it seems that the last East German defence minister, Mr. Eppelmann, has managed to transfer large quantities of arms which have no difficulties finding their customers. The main storage facilities are on the Baltic coast of Poland and in Konstantza (Romania) as well as in Czechoslovakia.

The role of Germany has always been very delicate, especially after the unification. With regards to Yugoslavia the German federal government is in a particularly difficult situation: the presence of German arms in Yugoslavia is doubtless, but the way it got here remains a mystery. The German official statements do not provide sufficient guarantees. The Yugoslav side does not excel in giving explanations about obvious things either. The case of "Heckler und Koch", which is for some reason creating particular anxiety to the Germans, is clear enough: automatic guns and sniper rifles G-3 SSG have for years served as official police weapons; both the producer and the German government are denying to have ever been exporting them, although they obviously bear German trademarks. The Yugoslav side is keeping quiet about this, although it reacted fiercely on the import of other illegal arms (their customary hypocrisy). A similar "talk of the deaf" took place on the "Armbrust" hand rocket launchers: Igor Bavcar, the Slovene Minister of Interior admitted in the interview to VREME two weeks ago that Slovenia has bought "Armbrust" arms made in Singapore. The German government at first claimed that they have stopped producing "Armbrust"; then it said that the license has been sold to Singapore; then they claimed that it has been sold to "a certain NATO country", which then found its way to Singapore. The "Armbrust" arms we had the chance to examine speak for themselves: one is made in Germany, another seems Spanish ("a certain NATO country"), with the serial number DS ARMA 02-90- 1788. In all these cases the German law which requires the permission of the German government for the export of arms which were devised in Germany and are licensed to be produced in other countries has been violated. This is not the first case of this kind: in February 1990 the opposition has proved to the government that "Heckler und Koch" arms have been exported to as many as twelve countries outside NATO - without permission.

The Yugoslav and German diplomatic exchange does not reveal much either. It turned out that the memorandum which was sent to the Security Council concerning the observance of the 713 and 724 resolutions was badly flawed. The German side responded on January 30 with the equally inadequate memorandum, claiming that "there is no proof" and that some sixty Yugoslav citizens were arrested for attempting to smuggle arms. At the same time, the German war ships ended their voyage in the Mediterranean and returned their merchant ship "Godewind" (under the German flag) which was transporting 60 tanks of former NVA to Syria. The German ZDF TV crew which found itself on one of the ships filmed the whole event. The desire of the German government to clear its name is obvious, but it is difficult to realize. The German embassy has kindly offered an explanation concerning the special lists of exports to Yugoslavia, but we are none the wiser for it. The explanation which readily presents itself is that Yugoslavia only served for the transit of sensitive goods and technology, i.e. that Yugoslavia has, along with many other countries been breaking the German law. Only this can explain the reserved attitude of both sides.

Private arms dealers have been raging up and down Yugoslavia for quite some time. Private merchants are ideal mediators for both buyers and sellers. The seller is protected while the commission is high which profits sellers and buyers equally. It is well known that both Croats and Slovenes were in 1990 voraciously buying up Hungarian arms at a much higher price than the one prevailing in Europe. Everybody joined in. The Slovenes are selling Mi-8 helicopters to Bosnia (probably of East German or Polish origin); Croats are buying all they can (mostly East German judging by the quantity of AK-74 guns available) and certain officials are rumoured to have been "getting richer" all the time. The army has replenished its stocks with the help of the Bar (Montenegro) contingent, but the problem of telecommunications remains. The negotiations with the people in charge are under way. Serbia is doing its bit: private mediators are going around Belgrade offering sensitive technology, while the exporters of illegal arms to Yugoslavia are being treated as welcome guests.

The UN embargo obviously enjoys the full support of the Yugoslav federal government. Thus it should be ensured that the embargo is respected here, and the international con artists should be prevented from practicing their craft in these parts. The entire Yugoslav territory is saturated with arms - enough for the Yugoslav peoples to exterminate each other many times over.