Rogue Planet

Secret Iraqi Deal Shows Problems in Arms Orders

By SOLOMON MOORE
BAGHDAD — An $833 million Iraqi arms deal secretly negotiated with Serbia has underscored Iraq’s continuing problems equipping its armed forces, a process that has long been plagued by corruption and inefficiency.

The deal was struck in September without competitive bidding and it sidestepped anticorruption safeguards, including the approval of senior uniformed Iraqi Army officers and an Iraqi contract approval committee. Instead, it was negotiated by a delegation of 22 high-ranking Iraqi officials, without the knowledge of American commanders or many senior Iraqi leaders.

The deal drew enough criticism that Iraqi officials later limited the purchase to $236 million. And much of that equipment, American commanders said, turned out to be either shoddy or inappropriate for the military’s mission.

An anatomy of the purchase highlights how the Iraqi Army’s administrative abilities — already hampered by sectarian rifts and corruption — are woefully underdeveloped, hindering it in procuring weapons and other essentials in a systematic way. It also shows how an American procurement process set up to help foreign countries navigate the complexity of buying weapons was too slow and unwieldy for wartime needs like Iraq’s, prompting the Iraqis to strike out on their own.

Such weaknesses mean that five years after the American invasion, the 170,000-strong Iraqi military remains under-equipped, spottily supplied and largely reliant on the United States for such basics as communications equipment, weapons and ammunition, raising fresh questions about the Iraqi military’s ability to stand on its own.

Iraq’s defense minister, Abdul Qadir, defended the arms deal, saying he had followed proper contracting protocols and had informed Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki every step of the way.

Report says Serbia among principal importers of Bosnian weapons

Sarajevo - Export of Bosnia-Hercegovina's arms and ammunition is constantly on the rise, with Serbia as one of the principal buyers. According to the report on export and import of arms forwarded to the B-H Parliament, in 2006 Serbia was among the highest-ranked countries that bought arms and ammunition from Bosnia-Hercegovina.

In one year, arms worth around $9 million were exported to Serbia. Obviously, Bosnia-Hercegovina's and Serbia's systems are complementary, because topping the list of items sold to Serbia are ammunition and
equipment for the assemblage of percussion caps. Interestingly, two thirds of all arms and ammunition imported to Serbia come from Bosnia-Hercegovina.

Bosnia-Hercegovina's biggest exporter of ammunition is the Gorazde-based Gineks company. In addition to Serbia, the biggest importers of B-H arms and ammunition are Malaysia, Switzerland, and Turkey. Figures on the overall export earnings are confusing. According to the said report, Bosnia-Hercegovina made 50.2 million euros on the export of arms in 2006. However, according to the figures of the B-H Foreign Trade Chamber, the value of exported arms and ammunition in 2006 was just 13 million euros. On the other hand, the Foreign Trade Chamber noted a rise in the arms export in 2007. According to the chamber, Bosnia-Hercegovina in the first 11 months of 2007 exported arms and ammunition worth 17.7 million euros, which is an increase of nearly 38 per cent when compared to the previous year.

In any case, Bosnia-Hercegovina's military industry is obviously on the path of recovery. The country is also slowly getting rid of surplus and superfluous arms, ammunition, and military equipment. A big problem for the B-H military industry is that it is still not taking part in regional projects to develop and manufacture arms exportable to more countries.

As for the arms import, its value in 2007 was around 2.5 million euros, which is a 28-per cent increase compared to the preceding year.

Source: Vecernji list (Bosnia-Hercegovina edition), Zagreb, in Croatian 9 Jan 08

Serbia and Iraq sign multimillion weapons deal

Associated Press Worldstream
December 21, 2007 Friday 3:35 PM GMT

BELGRADE Serbia

Serbia has signed a US$230 million (euro160 million) deal with Iraq to sell weapons and military equipment, the defense ministry said Friday.

It did not specify the weapons but Serbian military experts believe they include Serbian-made assault rifles, machine guns, anti-tank weapons, ammunition and explosives.

Iraq's Defense Minister Abdul-Qadir al-Obaidi visited Belgrade in September and November to discuss boosting military ties with Serbia.

His visit was the first by a top Iraqi official since the fall of the dictatorial regimes of Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic, who had maintained close ties.

Yugoslav construction companies built much of Iraq's military infrastructure, such as air bases and command bunkers, during the 1970s and 80s.