(english / italiano)
Croazia: armi che vengono, armi che vanno
1) Dall'Argentina carichi di armi per la Croazia. Condannato l'ex presidente Carlos Menem /
- Appeals court finds Carlos Menem guilty of arms trafficking (AP)
- Scandal over Argentinian arms sales (Wikipedia)
2) Siria, l’Arabia arma i ribelli con i cannoni della Croazia / Da Zagabria 75 aerei pieni di armi per la Siria
=== 1 ===
FLASHBACKS:
1993, Menem appoggia gli esuli ustascia ed il riconoscimento della "indipendenza" croata
2001, Menem arrestato per il traffico illegale di armi
2003, primo proscioglimento dei trafficanti di armi amici degli ustascia
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Reversal for Argentine ex-leader: Appeals court finds Carlos Menem guilty of arms trafficking
By Associated Press, March 08, 2013
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Former Argentine President Carlos Menem and 11 others were found guilty by an appeals court on Friday of smuggling weapons to Ecuador and Croatia in violation of international embargoes in the 1990s.
Menem, now 82 and enjoying immunity as an Argentine senator, had been acquitted at trial in 2011, but the appellate court said much of the evidence had been mistakenly dismissed, and that there is no logical way the weapons could have been smuggled without Menem’s direct participation and approval.
Menem acknowledged signing secret decrees to export weapons to Venezuela and Panama, but said he had no idea that the tons of rifles and ammunition made in Argentina would end up in Ecuador and Croatia, countries subject to international embargoes at the time.
The appeals court called his defense “incomprehensible,” given voluminous evidence that customs procedures weren’t followed amid pressure from the presidency. The court found that Menem’s brother-in-law and “man of confidence,” Emir Yoma, acted as his intermediary with the government authorities and others involved in the scheme, and that Yoma also collected money from the companies involved.
“The only person with enough power to influence simultaneously, and over all these years, three different government ministries, their various agencies, the Argentine Army and even Congress, was the President of the Nation, Carlos Saul Menem, through Yoma,” the appellate court ruled.
Friday’s 237-page ruling by the three-judge panel convicts the former president as “co-author of the crime of smuggling, aggravated by the fact that it involved military weapons and required the intervention of public officials.”
(...) The Menem administration’s arms trafficking became public in 1995 when the weapons showed up in Ecuador and Croatia’s conflict zones, and ethics watchdog Ricardo Monner Sans filed a civilian complaint. Despite the international scandal it generated, Menem was re-elected with 50 percent support.
The case then progressed slowly as Menem moved from sworn political enemy to dependable ally of the governments of the late Nestor Kirchner and his wife and successor, President Fernandez.
Menem had been held under house arrest for six months in 2001, but at the time he faced only a conspiracy charge and the Argentine Supreme Court set him free. His 2008 trial on the arms trafficking charges included 383 witnesses many testifying from Ecuador, Peru and Europe.
“It was an absurd contradiction” that the trial court found no one responsible despite clear evidence of arms trafficking, Monner Sans said Friday. He said he hopes the appellate verdict sends a different message to the Argentine people: “That it’s always worth the trouble to fight.”
By Associated Press, March 08, 2013
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Former Argentine President Carlos Menem and 11 others were found guilty by an appeals court on Friday of smuggling weapons to Ecuador and Croatia in violation of international embargoes in the 1990s.
Menem, now 82 and enjoying immunity as an Argentine senator, had been acquitted at trial in 2011, but the appellate court said much of the evidence had been mistakenly dismissed, and that there is no logical way the weapons could have been smuggled without Menem’s direct participation and approval.
Menem acknowledged signing secret decrees to export weapons to Venezuela and Panama, but said he had no idea that the tons of rifles and ammunition made in Argentina would end up in Ecuador and Croatia, countries subject to international embargoes at the time.
The appeals court called his defense “incomprehensible,” given voluminous evidence that customs procedures weren’t followed amid pressure from the presidency. The court found that Menem’s brother-in-law and “man of confidence,” Emir Yoma, acted as his intermediary with the government authorities and others involved in the scheme, and that Yoma also collected money from the companies involved.
“The only person with enough power to influence simultaneously, and over all these years, three different government ministries, their various agencies, the Argentine Army and even Congress, was the President of the Nation, Carlos Saul Menem, through Yoma,” the appellate court ruled.
Friday’s 237-page ruling by the three-judge panel convicts the former president as “co-author of the crime of smuggling, aggravated by the fact that it involved military weapons and required the intervention of public officials.”
(...) The Menem administration’s arms trafficking became public in 1995 when the weapons showed up in Ecuador and Croatia’s conflict zones, and ethics watchdog Ricardo Monner Sans filed a civilian complaint. Despite the international scandal it generated, Menem was re-elected with 50 percent support.
The case then progressed slowly as Menem moved from sworn political enemy to dependable ally of the governments of the late Nestor Kirchner and his wife and successor, President Fernandez.
Menem had been held under house arrest for six months in 2001, but at the time he faced only a conspiracy charge and the Argentine Supreme Court set him free. His 2008 trial on the arms trafficking charges included 383 witnesses many testifying from Ecuador, Peru and Europe.
“It was an absurd contradiction” that the trial court found no one responsible despite clear evidence of arms trafficking, Monner Sans said Friday. He said he hopes the appellate verdict sends a different message to the Argentine people: “That it’s always worth the trouble to fight.”
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Scandal over Argentinian arms sales to Ecuador and Croatia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Scandal over arms sales to Ecuador and Croatia took place during Carlos Menem's first term (1989-1995) and would have been illegal because then UN enforced an embargo on the former Yugoslavia.
The sale of weapons to Ecuador took place in the midst of armed conflict with Peru. The scandal was very important in Argentina because they where among the four official guarantors of peace of the Treaty of Rio de Janeiro, which breached its international commitment and missed with its obligations under international law.[1]
Shipments to Croatia began in 1991, To do this President Menem signed two secret decrees, endorsed by several ministers, and continued from 1993 until 1995, when Menem affixed his signature to a third secret decree for the same purpose.
According to these two decrees of 1991 weapons were destined for Panama and as the third in 1995, to Venezuela. None of these countries had ordered weapons to Argentina before, at that time Panama also lacked a proper army after the 1989 United States invasion of Panama. Most of the weapons were diverted to Croatia which in the middle of the war in Yugoslavia, needed weapons , and the rest to Ecuador in 1995.
Seven shipments where made by sea to Croatia, the first one in 1991 with military equipment produced by the Dirección General de Fabricaciones Militares (Government military Industries), the six other shipments contained weapons from regular army units like 155 mm cannons, and cannon powder, Italian Oto Melara mortars. FM offered the weapons used and refurbished, and Croatia accepted them.
It was estimated that a total of 6,500 tons of trafficked weapons and ammunition where smuggled, The weapons were built by FM , some army serial number and Argentine coats of arms where removed from cannons and weapons in the military factory in Rio Tercero that later exploded in a sabotage action created to remove evidences that destroyed half the city causing several deaths. Most of the witnesses in the trial of the explosion have died in bizarre accidents.
The confession of former Controller of Fabricaciones Militares, Luis Sarlenga, which prompted on June 2001, to process and send house arrest Carlos Menem done by the federal judge Jorge Urso.[2]
Six months later, the Supreme Court issued a controversial acquittal in which the former president was released.[3]
However, in 2007, was prosecuted again for the economic criminal judge Rafael Caputo, who was prevented from leaving the country and issued an order to seize their property.
Despite this, the former president is protected by legislative privileges accruing to him as senator from the province of La Rioja. In the case were also involved former economy minister Domingo Cavallo, former Defense Minister Oscar Camilion and former Air Force Brigadier Juan Paulik.[4]
See also:
References:
- ^ Santoro, Daniel. "Volvieron a complicar a Menem y Cavallo en la causa de las armas". Clarin. Retrieved 27 November 2012.
- ^ "Diego Palleros: "Menem sabía la verdad sobre las armas"". La nacion. Domingo 18 de enero de 2004. Retrieved 27 November 2012.
- ^ "Former President Menem was acquitted by the arms sales to Ecuador and Croatia". Clarin. Retrieved 27 November 2012.
- ^ Meyer, Adriana (14 de septiembre de 2011). "Armas que cargó el Diablo". Pagina 12. Retrieved 27 November 2012.
=== 2 ===
Sulla fornitura di armi ai terroristi e stragisti anti-siriani si veda anche:
Armi da Croazia, Bosnia e Kosovo per i terroristi anti-siriani
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ESTERI
27/02/2013 - LA STORIA
Siria, l’Arabia arma i ribelli
con i cannoni della Croazia
Il “Nyt”: gli arsenali delle guerre balcaniche trasferiti via Giordania
MAURIZIO MOLINARI
CORRISPONDENTE DA NEW YORK
L’Arabia Saudita rifornisce i ribelli siriani con armi croate, che arrivano a destinazione passando per la Giordania.
La rivelazione del «New York Times», alla vigilia della riunione romana dei Paesi «Amici della Siria», lascia intendere che Riad è determinata a mettere sotto pressione la Casa Bianca affinché faccia cadere in fretta il veto sulle forniture di armi ai ribelli, ritenendolo un passaggio necessario per accelerare la caduta del regime di Bashar Assad. Il piano saudita è un’operazione logistica assai accurata: Riad acquista da interlocutori a Zagabria ingenti quantità di armamenti di fanteria risalenti alle guerre balcaniche degli Anni Novanta, che vengono imbarcati su aerei Ilyushin 76 e trasportati in Giordania da dove, via terra, raggiungono le postazioni dei ribelli in Siria.
Sarebbe stato proprio un inviato croato, secondo il quotidiano newyorchese, a far conoscere lo scorso anno a Washington l’esistenza di ingenti forniture di armamenti di fanteria leggera pronte ad essere vendute ma l’amministrazione Obama si divise: Dipartimento di Stato, Cia e Pentagono si dissero favorevoli ad armare i ribelli mentre la Casa Bianca si oppose, per espressa volontà del presidente Barack Obama.
La scelta della monarchia wahabita fu dunque di subentrare alle esitazioni americane, scegliendo di diventare la nazione guida dell’invio di armamenti ai ribelli che, nel corso degli ultimi mesi, hanno consentito di mettere sulla difensiva le forze del regime. A essere particolarmente efficaci sono infatti i missili tipo-stinger, che minacciano elicotteri e aerei, così come i pezzi di artiglieria leggera perché consentono di dare l’assalto alle basi e ostacola con efficacia i movimenti dei carri armati di produzione russa.
Il duello fra armi di provenienza croata in mano ai ribelli e forniture russe negli arsenali di Assad ripropone in Siria le caratteristiche tattiche dei conflitti balcanici, dove erano i serbi a battersi con forniture dell’ex Urss.
L’«Operazione Croazia», formalmente smentita da Zagabria, non è tuttavia l’unico flusso di armi che i sauditi fanno arrivare ai ribelli come dimostrato dal fatto che questi possiedono caricatori di fucili prodotti in Ucraina, bombe a mano svizzere e fucili belgi. Il massiccio impegno saudita nasce dalla volontà di bilanciare le forniture di armi di Teheran alle forze di Assad, che avvengono ricorrendo ad aerei da trasporto dell’esercito iraniano con le insegne della «Maharaj Airlines».
La frequenza di tali consegne è talmente intensa da essere stata soprannominata «la latteria» da parte dei servizi occidentali. Far trapelare tali dettagli alla vigilia della riunione multilaterale di Roma implica la volontà dei sauditi di tornare a mettere sotto pressione l’amministrazione Obama affinché riveda l’opposizione alle forniture di armi.
In tale ottica la scelta dei ribelli siriani di far pesare al Segretario di Stato John Kerry la loro adesione al summit di Roma assomiglia ad un primo esplicito monito: se Washington continuerà a far mancare le armi, la potenza di riferimento degli insorti diventerà l’Arabia Saudita. Alle cui spalle vi sono i fondi delle altre monarchie del Golfo, a cominciare da Qatar ed Emirati Arabi Uniti.
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Da Zagabria 75 aerei pieni di armi per la Siria
I carichi su enormi “Ilyushin” erano destinati ai ribelli. Il governo nega. Ma i video provano il traffico
BELGRADO. La stampa croata lancia il sasso, il New York Times lo raccoglie, Zagabria seccamente smentisce. Ma la storia delle armi croate girate ai ribelli siriani via Giordania sembra essere fondata. Lo ha ripetuto ieri il quotidiano Jutarnji List, il primo a rivelare la potenziale esistenza di un piano per far arrivare vecchi armamenti jugoslavi e croati ai guerriglieri che da mesi cercano di abbattere il regime di Assad. Jutarnji List che ha nuovamente confermato l’esistenza di un traffico segreto di granate, lanciarazzi e munizioni tra la Croazia e il Medio Oriente, aggiungendo nuova benzina al fuoco. Dall’aeroporto di Zagabria, su enormi aerei cargo “Ilyushin” appartenenti alla Turkish Airlines e a una compagnia aerea giordana, «negli ultimi quattro mesi» sarebbero state trasportate verso la Siria, per finire nelle mani della resistenza al regime, ben «3.000 tonnellate di armi». I voli, spiega il quotidiano, sarebbero stati circa 75, hanno svelato fonti diplomatiche. Fonti che hanno specificato che sui grandi aerei non sarebbero state caricate solo armi “made in Croazia” o vecchi residuati bellici jugoslavi, bensì anche «armi provenienti da altri Paesi europei», Gran Bretagna in testa, in un affare complesso «organizzato dal governo americano» che ha ben pensato di utilizzare Zagabria come punto di transito principale del flusso di materiale bellico. Un affare, va detto, nuovamente negato da Zagabria, che ha dichiarato che la Croazia «non ha venduto o donato» armi ai ribelli siriani. Smentite che però cozzano contro i video di armamenti ex jugoslavi in azione in Siria, postati su Internet nelle settimane scorse. Filmati che mostrano i cannoni senza rinculo M60 da 82mm, usati dal defunto esercito federale jugoslavo fin dal 1960, e ora in mano agli oppositori di Assad. E lanciamissili anticarro portatili, sigla M79 Osa, sempre fabbricati in Jugoslavia dal 1979 fino al collasso del Paese e successivamente in Bosnia, Macedonia, Serbia e in Croazia. Ma anche lanciagranate RPG-22 e gli RBG- 6, «studiati e prodotti in Croazia» fin dai tempi della guerra d’indipendenza dalla “Metallic”, spiega una brochure dell’azienda produttrice del lanciagranate con sede a Fiume. Tutte armi mai apparse prima sul teatro di guerra siriano. Armi che hanno avuto di certo ricadute geopolitiche significative, come attesta l’annuncio di Zagabria, dato dieci giorni fa, del ritiro dei suoi caschi blu dalle alture del Golan, al confine con la Siria. «I nostri soldati non sono più sicuri», aveva ammesso il premier croato Milanovic. Non più sicuri perché a un tiro di schioppo dalla possibile vendetta degli uomini di Assad.