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U.N. Arms Embargoes Busted by Ships from the West
By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 30, 2012 (IPS) - When the Security Council penalises governments with economic
sanctions and arms embargoes, the world body's 193 member
states are mandated to help implement the wide-ranging
punitive measures imposed on these countries.
But a new study released Monday says
more than 60 percent of the ships
involved in reported cases of sanctions-busting or illicit transfer of
arms, drugs and other military equipment are owned by companies in the
Western world.
The owners of the ships are primarily commercial shipping lines
belonging to countries in the European Union (EU), the North Atlantic
Treaty Organisation (NATO) or the Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute
(SIPRI),
described as one of the world's leading think tanks based in Sweden,
points out that sanctions-busting ships are primarily from Germany,
Greece and the United States.
But the top 12 countries also include North Korea, Panama, Iran,
Norway, the Russian Federation, Belize, the Netherlands, Denmark and
Japan.
"This doesn't mean the ship owners, or even the captains, know what
they are carrying. But it is relatively easy for traffickers to hide
arms and drugs among legitimate cargoes," said Hugh Griffiths, co-
author of the SIPRI study.
Over the years, the Security Council has imposed economic sanctions
and/or arms embargoes on more than 25 countries, including the former
apartheid regime in South Africa, Southern Rhodesia, Haiti, Rwanda,
Angola, Liberia, Libya, Somalia, Iraq, the former Yugoslavia, Sierra
Leone, Somalia, Sudan and Cote d'Ivoire.
According to the Security Council Sanctions Committee, the Council has
resorted to mandatory sanctions as "an enforcement tool when peace has
been threatened and diplomatic efforts have failed".
The range of sanctions has included comprehensive economic and trade
sanctions and/or more targeted measures such as arms embargoes, travel
bans, financial or diplomatic restrictions.
SIPRI says containerisation has not only revolutionised international
trade, but it has also provided ideal cover for traffickers.
And of the many shipping containers that pass through the world's
ports every day, only a fraction can be inspected. Ship owners and
even customs officers often just have to take it on trust that what's
inside the container is what it says on the cargo documents.
Asked about the need for close monitoring of arms embargoes by the
United Nations, Griffiths told IPS, "I would say that certain U.N.
arms embargoes may prove more effective if member states provide
greater resources and information-sharing to monitor shipments by
sea."
The Libya case, he said, is a good example because member states
patrolled the Libyan coast and intercepted oil and arms shipments
under a NATO taskforce umbrella.
"This really helped enforce the embargo as it related to the regime of
(Libyan leader) Muammar al-Gadaffi," he said.
However, even relatively simple measures such as enhanced information-
sharing on maritime actors between U.N. member states and the U.N.
sanctions apparatus do not really exist in the case of some other
Africa-related arms embargoes, he pointed out.
Also, it is clear that there are varying levels of cooperation by
different U.N. peacekeeping missions with the U.N. Groups of Experts
monitoring embargoes for the U.N. Sanctions Committees, said
Griffiths.
In other words, he said, some U.N. Groups of Experts get better
cooperation with certain peacekeeping missions than others.
But mainly it is an issue of member states because they are the only
ones with the resources and assets which can provide both information
and inspection of vessels.
According to the report, governing maritime trade has always been
challenging.
"But opportunities are being missed to improve surveillance and use
existing mechanisms to crack down on trafficking," it said.
This is an international phenomenon that requires international
cooperation involving the major players in the shipping industry.
Asked about the roots of the problem, Griffiths told IPS, "It is
certainly not the fault of the U.N. Groups of Experts, nor the U.N.
secretariat responsible supporting the work of the Sanctions
Committees."
These bodies, he said, do an exceptional job with what are often very
limited resources.
The failure is primarily due to two reasons: firstly, the fact that
many member states don't have this capacity, and secondly, there is
not enough information-sharing systems - formal and informal - between
U.N. member states for sharing information.
This information is primarily on ships suspected of involvement in
transporting military equipment which is ultimately destined for
African regions or actors under a U.N. arms embargo.
Asked whether the U.N. Security Council should name and shame these
shipping companies, Griffiths said, "That's a matter for the Security
Council, but from a counter-trafficking perspective, I think it would
be useful if, one way or another, certain companies were made aware of
the fact that they may have inadvertently or deliberately assisted in
a transport process which ultimately led to a violation of a U.N. arms
embargo."
(END)
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