From factory to the firing line: the story of one bullet
D.L. Man
Although someone will still be pointing a gun at you after that and it
doesn't do anything about violent people they think it will make the world
all better.
This is BS.
http://www.sundayherald.com/52164
How do legally manufactured AK-47 bullets get into the hands of mercenaries
and child soldiers? Their journey tells us much about the modern world,
finds Foreign Editor David Pratt
THIS is the story of a journey; one that begins in a drab industrial
complex, shifts to the splendour of luxury hotels and villas, then ricochets
across oceans and continents before its final stage is played out in some
beleaguered country. Though long and tortuous, it's a trip that invariably
finishes swiftly - at roughly 700 metres per second - and its ultimate
destination is death.
This is the story of a 7.62x39mm copper-plated, steel-jacketed, high
velocity cartridge for the famous AK-47 assault rifle, the most commonly
used bullet around the world. The new film Lord Of War - which stars Nicolas
Cage as amoral but charismatic arms dealer Yuri Orlov - opens with a
rapid-fire montage which tells the story of a bullet, from its birth in a
manufacturing plant, to its fatal impact on a child soldier. But what's the
real story behind the Hollywood device?
As a war reporter, I have often come across AK-47 cartridges. I've seen them
stacked in foil-sealed wooden crates in the caves and jungle hideouts of
rebel armies. I've watched fighters shoving them into their familiar
30-round curved box magazines, which in turn are slipped into khaki green
canvas pouches strapped to the bodies of the gunmen for whom they are simply
the stock in a deadly trade. Time and again I've been around when they were
fired, the discarded empty casings tinkling to the ground then rolling
underfoot in the dirt and sand of battlefields, murder scenes and massacres,
from Bosnia to Iraq, Congo to Angola.
I've even fired them myself. The first time was in the 1980s, while
traveling clandestinely as a reporter in the mountains of Afghanistan with
mujahidin guerrillas fighting the Russian invaders of their country.
"Shoot, shoot, mister Daoud!" insisted the commander of my rebel hosts for
the umpteenth time , as we rested in a remote craggy valley. With his holy
warriors looking on, the commander slotted a full clip of the boat-tailed
bullets into a Soviet-made AK-47 and thrust the weapon towards me. The time
had long since passed for acceptable excuses about journalistic ethics and
my non-combatant status.
Judging by the looks of the fighters around me, this had simply boiled down
to an issue of initiation and acceptance; a very Afghan thing about loyalty
and brotherhood. To refuse now would have made my presence at best
uncomfortable, and at worst, untenable.
A battered plastic bottle was set up as a target. As I squeezed the trigger
and the first rounds cracked against some rocks reasonably close to the
bottle, the gawping bearded guerrillas who had clustered around began to
grin. It wasn't a question of them ever expecting me to fire in earnest,
just about passing some strange macho muster.
After only minutes of instruction, the ease with which I was able to handle
the rifle was proof of the AK-47's reputation as a so-called "user-friendly"
weapon. It's the firearm of choice among mercenary suppliers who know that
those who end up shouldering this oddly toy-like weapon - which fires 600
rounds a minute, each powerful enough to punch a hole through a man's chest
from 100 yards - will have had little or no proper military training. Put
another way, it's ideal for everyone from Rwandan peasant farmers to
Liberian schoolkids-turned-killers.
That afternoon, following my noisy initiation in the Hindu Kush mountains, I
picked up a few of the dark copper-coloured shells that lay in the dust to
keep as souvenirs. En route through Pakistan on my way home from
Afghanistan, I suddenly decided to throw them away, ostensibly for fear of
being pulled aside at airport security checks, but also because of some
lurking guilt about coveting a trophy of violence. Pausing to drop them into
a bin outside Islamabad airport, I couldn't help wondering where these
bullets had first come from. How did these rounds make their way from a
high-tech manufacturing plant to the war-torn wilds of Afghanistan ?
It was, of course, in Russia - Afghanistan's mighty former communist
neighbour - that the AK-47 (Avtomat Kalashnikova model 1947) rifle, and
those eight-gram bullets , were invented. The brainchild of a second world
war tank sergeant, Mikhail Timofeyevich Kalashnikov, the AK-47 was the
weapon favoured during the cold war years by non-Western powers. Robust,
simple, cost-effective, it was the mainstay of "military assistance
programmes," in which Russia supplied its communist allies around the
world - officially and unofficially - thus ensuring the AK-47's global
proliferation.
With 100 million AK-47s across the planet, the rifle's familiar silhouette
is part of modern iconography, making its way onto the flag of the Islamist
Hezbollah movement and the Mozambique national coat of arms. In other
African countries, Kalash - a shortened form of Kalashnikov - has even
become a boys' name.
Whatever we may think about the morality of arms manufacturing, vast numbers
of AK-47 bullets start life legally in Russia. In the grimy, polluted city
of Tula, 170km south of Moscow, bullet-making is a way of life. This city -
home to 550,000 people and hosting a military garrison of airborne troops, a
16th century kremlin as well as various onion-domed churches and
cathedrals - manufactures only one other product: the samover, Russia's
answer to the teapot.
Since at least 1940, the Tula Cartridge Plant has been producing rounds that
fit the AK-47. Today it is the biggest domestic and export supplier of the
bullets, which are marketed abroad under the "Wolf" trademark. At the
factory, which resembles a scene from a socialist realist painting, 7.62mm
rounds trundle off the conveyor belt by the million in a choice of either
brass or bimetal jacket with a steel case. These are packed by some of the
7000-strong workforce into handy boxes of 20, or crated in larger numbers
for bulk orders.
Many of the new rounds are likely to be sold through the Russian arms export
agency Rosoboronexport, which also deals in older bullets sourced from cold
war stockpiles. Ever since those tense years four decades ago, Russia and
other central and eastern European countries have been sitting on billions
of rounds manufactured for use in a full-scale war with the West that never
came.
"Much of this ammunition is 20 or 30 years old, all from the 1970s and
1980s, so it's near impossible to check on where they come from, and that's
just the start of the problem," insists Alex Vines, a human rights and
Africa analyst who has intensively researched the arms trade. According to
Vines, former Soviet republics desperate for hard currency were only too
happy to sell off their large surplus armouries in the wake of the communist
meltdown.
uuu
It's at this point that our bullet, especially if it originates from an
older stockpile, can slip into a far more sinister channel, to become part
of the vast ordnance on offer to a new breed of east European racketeers.
And what a breed they are. Gun-runners extraordinaire, like the Ukrainian
Leonid Minin, or the Russian Victor Bout. Many people say that Yuri Orlov,
the character played by Nicolas Cage in Lord Of War, is based on Victor
Bout.
Indeed, the movie's director, Andrew Niccol, is rumoured to have rented the
Russian-built Antanov cargo plane used in a fictional African arms delivery
scene from Victor Bout himself. In another case of fiction mirroring fact,
the thousands of AK-47s used by extras in the film were bought by Niccol on
the international arms market. Given that the average going rate for an
AK-47 in Africa is $30, it would hardly be surprising. Niccol has said: "I
actually did become an arms dealer in the making of the film in the
logistics of making it. I had to get hold of a tank for a scene and 3000
Kalashnikovs. I bought real Kalashnikovs because it was cheaper than getting
fake ones." One can only assume that Niccol was making a political point by
showing just how easy such a transaction is.
Men like Leonid Minin and Victor Bout are typical of the new breed of
racketeer. So it's possible that, on its journey, our bullet was one of five
million catalogued in documents uncovered during a police raid on room 341
of Minin's co-owned luxury Europa Hotel in Cinisello Balsamo, outside Milan,
on August 4, 2000. Or perhaps it was among the 113 tons of 7.62 rounds the
Ukrainian delivered by air into the west African country of Ivory Coast just
a few weeks earlier - a dispatch that was revealed in a fax discovered
during the same police operation.
Ironically, the Italian police weren't there to arrest Minin on any arms
offences. When they crashed through his hotel room door at 3am that August
morning, it was because of a tip-off from an unpaid prostitute. During the
raid - in a scene one reporter described as "straight from a Tarantino
film" - the leader of the so-called Odessa Mafia was found freebasing
cocaine, naked, while flanked by a quartet of call girls.
"The Italian police arrested him for a minor offence and only later found
out who he really is. Then they started to take an interest in the case,"
complains Johan Peleman, a chain-smoking Belgian and one of the world's most
prominent arms-trade investigators, who has served on several UN expert
panels.
To call Peleman's task difficult would be the ultimate understatement. The
world in which "bullet detectives" like him operate is characterised by a
complex array of international and local arms brokering syndicates,
clandestine air transport, money laundering, embargo busting and ruthless
regimes. It's a shopping-in-the-shadows world, where inventories of illegal
arms - which could easily include our bullet - circulate between traders and
suppliers. Then, when a customer is found (usually someone prevented from
buying in the mainstream government markets), our rifle round is shipped by
civilian cargo companies to a transit point, from where it is transported to
its final destination in a war zone.
Fake end-user certificates (EUCs) are the first line of camouflage for the
illegal arms dealers. In theory, these documents are provided by a
purchasing government to guarantee that that country is the ultimate user of
the arms being bought. But it is rarely this simple. "I have come across
countless fake EUCs," confirms arms analyst Alex Vines.
One such example was the Pecos company of Guinea in West Africa, a front
organisation that supplied a seemingly endless stream of counterfeit EUCs to
the arms smuggling network of Victor Bout (pronounced "butt" in Russian). A
former KGB major, Bout has been referred to as the "poster boy for a new
generation of post-cold war arms dealers", who play an insidious role in
areas where the weapons trade has been embargoed by the United Nations.
Though worldwide in scope, Bout's main trafficking beat is the volatile
Central African Great Lakes region, from Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda across
the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to Angola.
A specialist air transport fixer since the early 1990s, Bout has been the
overseer of a complex network of more than 50 aircraft, distributed among
several airline companies and freight-forwarding outfits.
Although the arms merchant - formerly based in the United Arab Emirates and
now rumoured to be in Russia - has been pursued for years by bullet
detectives like Johan Peleman , a positive visual ID only became available
when two Belgian journalists bumped into him at an airstrip in remote
rebel-held Congo in 2001. Bout was then working with Jean-Pierre Bemba, the
leader of the Mouvement Pour La Libération Du Congo.
During that time, one of the journalists, Dirk Draulans, saw two of Victor
Bout's planes, carrying the registration numbers 9T-ALC and MLC - both
unknown to international aviation authorities. Later, a Belgian researcher
verified that the aircraft had been flying between Uganda and DRC at least
until November 2001.
UN officials have accused Victor Bout of using many "flags of convenience"
and subcontracting arrangements for his aircraft to facilitate illegal arms
and diamond smuggling activities, despite Bout's assertions that his
aircraft were simply used to deliver supplies to mining sites and take
valuable commodities like coltan and cassiterite out of places like DRC and
Angola.
"Landing heavy cargo planes with illicit cargoes in war conditions and
breaking international embargoes such as the one on Angola requires more
than individual effort," stated a UN report on Angola in December 2000. "It
takes an internationally organised network of individuals, well-funded,
well-connected and well versed in brokering and logistics, with the ability
to move illicit cargo around the world without raising the suspicions of the
law. One organisation, headed, or at least to all appearances outwardly
controlled by Victor Bout, is such an organisation."
As ever, the UN's use of earnest rhetoric in pointing out the obvious is
masterful. Across Africa, bullets, guns and other weapons are delivered with
alarming regularity in illegal operations that are chastised in a similarly
feeble manner by global bodies, yet remain immune from direct international
legal action.
In response, campaigners against the arms trade are placing great emphasis
on the need for all states to mark shells and cartridges with codes or marks
denoting batch/lot number, manufacturer and country of manufacture, year of
production and a code identifying the original recipient of the ammunition
lot - such as a police or military force. All of which would help in
identifying the convoluted supply chain either back to its original source
or to its real end-user.
During many years of working across the African continent, I have stood on
countless dirt airstrips watching Soviet-era cargo planes being loaded up
with anything from gold and diamonds, to rocket-propelled grenade launchers
and mortars, much of which has little or no accompanying "paperwork".
"African conflicts are wasteful of ammunition and are always in need of
more. The guys who carry this stuff in are just flying truck drivers," says
Alex Vines. He has a point.
In August 2003, at the height of Liberia's rainy season, I flew into the
capital, Monrovia, on the second humanitarian aid flight ever to have
reached the country since the upsurge of the civil war a few weeks before.
The aircraft was flown by a group of volunteer pilots who told me that days
earlier, coming in to land on the first aid flight, they had almost collided
with an unscheduled incoming cargo plane. "Later we found out it was flying
in ammunition and guns for President Charles Taylor, which some people said
was coming from Libya," the 58-year-old Swedish pilot told me. "It's always
the same across Africa, you never know who is flying what." One member of
the pilot's own crew even admitted to having "ferried a few bullets" in his
time.
For arms dealers, it's well worth the risk. According to Johan Peleman,
while it's difficult to put an accurate figure on the profits men like
Victor Bout make, back in 2002 the Russian was sitting on a fortune. "The
Rwandan government alone owed Bout $21 million. That gives you some idea of
the sums involved in his business. But that doesn't include barter
operations - arms for coffee or arms for diamonds," says Peleman.
uuu
There is, of course, an altogether different price to be paid for every
bullet that lands in those war-torn African lands . Take the Democratic
Republic of Congo, which has been the focus of Victor Bout's activities in
recent years. Sustained by the easy availability of bullets and guns, war
crimes and other human rights violations have been widespread and almost
non-stop. Extra-judicial executions, unlawful killings of civilians,
torture, rape and other sexual violence, the use of child soldiers,
abductions, looting of villages and forced displacement are among the
atrocities to which bullet suppliers are callously indifferent.
How many rounds delivered by these international dealers in death might have
been used during May and June last year when dissident elements of the
RCD-Goma opposed to the transitional government, took control of the city of
Bukavu in South Kivu province in Democratic Republic of Congo? During the
terrible days that followed, these dissident militias subjected the civilian
population to systematic human rights abuse until government troops retook
the city. Many of the guns and bullets they used were undoubtedly supplied
illegally.
More than 60 people were killed and more than 100 women and girls were
reportedly raped, including 17 who were aged 13 or younger. Some were raped
as their parents watched helplessly. One victim was only three years old.
Extensive looting was also commonplace. The abusive acts became known
popularly among the militiamen as "opération TDF" - operation [mobile]
telephones, dollars, daughters - because this is what the soldiers demanded
at gunpoint after forcing their way into civilian homes.
Many of the killings took place during looting, often after the victims had
given all they had or simply because, as one informant told Amnesty
International, "they didn't like the look on your face". On more than one
occasion soldiers reportedly levelled their AK-47s at children's heads to
extort money from householders, demanding dollars for the life of each
child.
The victims included Lambert Mobole Bitorwa, who was shot at home in front
of his children; Jolie Namwezi, reportedly shot in front of her children
after she resisted rape; Murhula Kagezi, a student killed at his home while
his father was in the next room fetching a mobile phone to give to the
soldiers; and 13-year-old Marie Chimbale Tambwe, shot dead on the balcony of
her home apparently because a militiaman believed she had pulled a face at
him while he was looting in the street below.
uuu
This is the bloody endgame in the story of our 7.62x39mm copper-plated,
steel-jacketed bullet . On arrival at its final destination, entering the
tissue of its victim, it usually travels forwards for about 26cm before
beginning to yaw. Ballistics experts and doctors speak then of "damage
patterns" - a sanitised term for the way the bullet rips through abdomens,
legs, arms or brains, sometimes deflecting off bones before exiting, leaving
a gaping, bloody hole.
If all this is to stop, then tighter global controls are imperative. The
question is whether the political will needed to implement such legislation
exists against the murky backdrop of a lucrative business that deals in
genuine weapons of mass destruction. Just as the profiteering has become a
way of life for the dealers, so it is, too, for those who dispatch the
bullets by pulling the trigger.
Some years ago in Liberia, I met a 14-year-old soldier who called himself
J-Boy. He was sitting on a bridge overlooking the Po River, smoking a joint
and loading some of those familiar copper-coloured cartridges into his
rifle. Had J-Boy himself ever killed anyone, I asked.
"Oh sure man, plenty, plenty," he assured me with a smile. "With this good
AK and these real fine bullets, it's way easy."
Lord Of War is released on October 14.
Control Arms (a joint campaign between Amnesty, Oxfam and the International
Action Network on Small Arms) campaigns for tough controls on the arms
trade, see www.controlarms.org
09 October 2005
Jos.Carman
> What BS!!
>
Carman wrote:
True, but quite effective BS. It's especially
effective for those who've been conditioned to
believe that "feeling" is better than than
"thinking".
I doubt David Pratt and Control Arms, (Amnesty,
Oxfam and the International Action Network on
Small Arms), are really "feelers". They are
committed ideological Socialists using this idea
of civilian disarmament in the service of their
very political goals.
> D.L. Man wrote:
> They think that if you take away the guns
> people will behave.
>
Carman wrote:
No, they don't. They may imply that, or even
say it; but they know it isn't true.
What they *believe*, and work towards, is the
subjugation of individual liberty so that The
State has no legitimate opposition.
Like the Communists, (from whom the modern
Authritarian Socialists are descended), they
believe the Triumph of The State is both
necessary and good.
> D.L. Man wrote:
> Although someone will still be pointing a gun
> at you after that (...)
>
Carman wrote:
But that person with the gun will either be
an agent of The State or an out and out criminal.
Either case is fine with the Socialists.
What really bothers them is the private citizen
who can legally own and use a gun for himself and
thus has the power to say "NO" to either The State
or the criminal.
The disarmed subject is forced to rely on The
State for protection from the criminal. If he
attempts self protection he will be punished.
In fact, The State will not protect him. It will
make the claim that it's doing so,(in some indirect
manner), but in reality fighting criminals is quite
dangerous.
Agents of The State know that, and would rather
get paid for investigating and harrassing the
disarmed and less dangerous subjects instead of
going after the criminals who might fight back.
> D.L. Man wrote:
> (...) and it doesn't do anything about violent
> people (...)
>
Carman wrote:
Violent people are not a problem to The State.
They are usually easily known and recognised for
what they are, and themselves have no belief they
have any "rights" at all.
> D.L. Man wrote:
> (...) they think it will make the world all better.
>
Carman wrote:
Such is the dogmatic belief of the Authoritarian
Socialists. Their vision of Utopia is totalitarian.
Somehow they seem able to ignore the dismal history
of totalitarian States.
D.L. Man
"Jos.Carman" <jos_c...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1128885630.6...@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> > D.L. Man wrote:
> > What BS!!
> >
> Carman wrote:
> True, but quite effective BS. It's especially
> effective for those who've been conditioned to
> believe that "feeling" is better than than
> "thinking".
>
I wonder how they would feel about watching their wife, daughter or
themselves being raped while they are unable to do anything about it.
Jos.Carman
>>>D.L. Man wrote:
>>>What BS!!
>>>
>> Carman wrote:
>> True, but quite effective BS. It's especially
>> effective for those who've been conditioned to
>> believe that "feeling" is better than than
>> "thinking".
>>
> I wonder how they would feel about watching their
> wife, daughter or themselves being raped while they
> are unable to do anything about it.
>
They would feel badly, of course. But whether they
would feel themselves personally *responsible* for
the tragedy, (in that they had chosen to be unarmed
and defenseless in a world where such things are
actually known to happen), is another question.
Jos.Carman
>>>D.L. Man wrote:
>>>What BS!!
>>>
>> Carman wrote:
>> True, but quite effective BS. It's especially
>> effective for those who've been conditioned to
>> believe that "feeling" is better than than
>> "thinking".
>>
> I wonder how they would feel about watching their
> wife, daughter or themselves being raped while they
> are unable to do anything about it.
>