A confidential report, first seen by Reuters on Thursday, suggests that deliveries of munition from Belarus were made directly to autonomous armed groups in Libya.
Libyan authorities are unable to halt the illicit trade in oil or the flow of weapons in and out of the country, and they need an international maritime force to help, United Nations sanctions monitors said in a new report by the U.N. Security Council’s Panel of Experts on Libya.
Libya has descended into factional fighting, leaving it almost lawless nearly four years after the fall and death of Gaddafi. Two competing governments backed by militia brigades are vying for control of the oil-producing OPEC member, and U.N.-brokered talks between them have been unsuccessful.
The 15-nation Security Council imposed an arms embargo on Libya in 2011 to stop delivery of weapons to the government of Gaddafi during his crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations. Under the embargo, the government can import munitions with approval of a council committee.
The panel said that U.N. exemptions aimed at enabling Libyan authorities to buy munitions to establish law and order have helped militias develop considerable arsenals.
One example cited in the report involved the council’s 2013 approval for Belarus to export 3,000 tons of ammunition to Libya.
The panel wrote that in February 2014 much of the first shipment from Belarus was not only “diverted upon arrival at Tripoli airport by brigades controlling it, but some of the deliveries appear to have been made directly to autonomous armed groups.” There were 15 other flights from Belarus. “This raises the possibility that further shipments may have been diverted by the Zintani brigades and the panel is still investigating,” it said.
Military expert Alyaksandr Alesin believes that the Belarusian government would not have dared to redirect supplies sanctioned by the UN Security Council to the hands of the Islamists. Ьoreover, those were Soviet-era weapons, and commercial benefit of such deal was questionable.
Commenting on the possibility of direct supplies to the Islamists, Alesin expressed confidence that in this case the US could have tracked them by means of space reconnaissance. And given that the delivery took place during the crisis in the relations between Belarus and the West, sanctions would have been caused by such a move, the expert added.
The ammunition could fall into the hands of armed groups with the help of corrupt officials in the Libyan government, Alesin supposed.
The Libyan Mission to the United Nations was not immediately available to comment on the report. Reuters says it could not independently verify the allegations.
AK/MS, www.belsat.eu/en/, following Reuters
