Romania Supplied Military Equipment To Côte d'Ivoire, Iraq – Amnesty International Report

The Amnesty International report, which calls for a global treaty regulating weapon trade, said Romania sold Côte d'Ivoire four Puma attack helicopters in 2003, when the country was undergoing a conflict between rebels and the government forces.

The Amnesty International report noted that several Eastern European states supplied large quantities of weapons to theCote d’Ivoire Government before the embargo imposed by NATO upon Côte d'Ivoire, although its forces were violating human rights.

Major weapon exporters to Côte d'Ivoire include Romania,Belarus, Russia, Bulgaria and Ukraine.

Amnesty criticizes the situation in Iraq, saying “the continuing proliferation and mismanagement of small arms and lack of respect for international human rights - including the training of state forces – has contributed significantly to the violence”.

AI report pointed at the “failure of the coalition conducted by the US to prevent abuse, to control weapon stocks and to disarm local militia groups”.

The report mentioned Romania and Bulgaria as having supplied ammunition to Iraq within USA effort to supply the Bagdad Government with military equipment, but did not supply concrete data on the exported quantities and the value of contracts.

"Several NATO member states donated military equipment to the Iraqi Government, within the training mission of the local troops”, said the report, adding the value of the closed contracts rises to EUR110 million.

These donations included personnel carriers, trucks, ammunition, upgraded T-72 tanks, armored conveyors and protection equipment, the report said.

In the beginning of 2005, general David Petraeus said 9,000 weapons were delivered to the Iraqi security services.

The report said the contributions came form Romania, Estonia and Denmark.

Romania is one of the countries that concluded contracts with Iraq for weapons exports, along with Albania, Bosnia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Iran, Latvia, Poland, Serbia, Slovakia, Syria and Great Britain.

 

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