A suspected former KGB officer with at least five aliases and numerous
passports was identified by the UN yesterday as the mastermind behind
international arms traffickers who supply rebels in Angola and Sierra Leone.
The Tajikistan-born Victor Bout, 33, who is based in the United Arab
Emirates
and is the son-in-law of a former senior KGB official, was said to use his
Air Cess airlines to ferry arms to Unita rebels in Angola and to the
Liberian
allies of Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front, in breach of UN
sanctions.
Details of Mr Bout's alleged operations are contained in two UN reports on
the illicit trade in arms and diamonds in Angola and Sierra Leone.
According to the UN, Mr Bout's Air Cess first appeared in 1996, registered
in
Liberia. In December 1996, it moved to Ostend, Belgium, and in 1997 to the
United Arab Emirates, using Sharjah airport for planes registered elsewhere.
Many of Mr Bout's 50 or so aircraft use the lax Liberian aviation registry,
as well as those in Equatorial Guinea and the Central African Republic.
A Sharjah-based Ilyushin 76 first registered in Liberia, then in the Central
African Republic and Congo-Brazzaville, made four arms deliveries from
Eastern Europe to Liberia after the flare-up in fighting in Sierra Leone
this
summer.
The cargo included military helicopters, anti-tank and anti-aircraft
systems,
missiles and armoured vehicles. UN investigators recommended that the
placing
of monitors at airports in West Africa and beyond to track suspect aircraft.
The UN identified a Briton, Michael Harridine, as an "associate" of Mr Bout,
who held authority to conduct business in Britain on behalf of the Liberian
aircraft register. "Harridine told the panel he is no longer involved with
the registration of Liberian aircraft," the UN reported. He said "that
irregular activities in the registration of Liberian aircraft were taking
place".
