Three weapons, three serial numbers.

These three rifles are Belgian. What’s so important about them? Well, the United Nations Panel of Experts on Libya mentioned them in its latest report, released this month:

73. The Panel requested the Belgian authorities to assist in tracing an FNC assault rifle that was photographed in Libya in 2012.2 The Belgian authorities responded that the rifle (serial No. 025992) bore markings that resembled a rifle that was part of an order exported to the Qatari armed forces in Doha around 1980.

99. In the first tracing request, an FN FAL assault rifle photographed in Libya in 2012 (serial No. 1514944) was identified by the Belgian manufacturer as being part of an order that was delivered to the Emirate of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, in 1979.

100. In the second tracing request, another FN FAL assault rifle photographed in Libya in 2012 (serial No. 1731984) was identified as resembling a weapon delivered to the Emirate of Dubai in an order dated 19 April 1991.

The problem? Those rifles were not found in Qatar nor in the UAE. They were found in Libya, in the hands of the men who fought Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

What does it mean? First, that Qatar and the UAE illegally diverted Belgian weapons. Second, that by doing so they breached an UN arms embargo.

Will Belgium change its arms export policy towards those two countries? With the elements of information available today, this question remains open.*

What it shows, though, is the importance of thoroughly documenting the tools of war.

Those rifles were not documented by the UN Panel of Experts, but by journalists on the ground. Those journalists then published their photographs and their stories. The Belgian authorities refused to trace those weapons until it was asked from them by the UN.

If you’re in Belgium and can read French, make sure to get a copy of Le Vif/L’Express today (or before next Thursday) for more details. (For those of you who will read the article, forgive the mistakes the photo editor made: the 1st picture is obviously an FNC, and the serial number on the 3rd page belongs to an FN FAL, not to an FNC.)

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Photos 1 and 2: an FN FAL rifle, with right-hand side serial number. Benghazi, Libya, February 2012, Damien Spleeters.

Photos 3 and 4: an FN FAL rifle, with right-hand side serial number. Benghazi, Libya, June 2012, Jef Linssen.

Photo 5 and 6: an FNC assault rifle, with serial number. Libya, June 2012, Jef Linssen.

*This paragraph was edited on April 19, 14:10 following a discussion held in the comment section.

This article, of Christophe Lamfalussy, was published not so long ago, in La Libre Belgique, along my piece on the COARM report (see here). Some context: the Belgian Foreign Affairs Minister, Didier Reynders, was visiting the Gulf countries recently. In Qatar, he made a declaration regarding the information we uncovered about the Belgian arms diversion tacking place in Syria: In Qatar, Reynders also asked the country not to re-export to Gaza and the Syrian opposition the arms of the FN [FN Herstal, Belgian small arms producer]. The government asked FN, based on pictures published in the press and on the serial numbers of the weapons, to verify the origin of the Belgian arms. This is an interesting twist in the investigation, especially after Mister Reynders said at first that this was not the competence of the federal government: D. Reynders answers the parliamentary question of N. Lijnen regarding the diversion of Belgian arms to Syri… These are the questions that I asked to the Belgian Foreign Affairs. The answers did not come yet. “Au Qatar, Reynders a également demandé que le pays ne réexporte pas vers Gaza et vers l’opposition syrienne les armes de la FN. Le gouvernement a demandé à la FN, sur base de photos publiés dans la presse et des numéros gravés sur les armes, de vérifier l’origine des armes belges, très réputées au Moyen-Orient.” Pourriez-vous m’en dire un peu plus?  Est-ce Monsieur Reynders (les Affaires Etrangères) qui a fait cette demande à la FN?  Sous quelle forme?  Quand cette demande a-t-elle été faite?  Pour quand attendez-vous une réponse?  La FN a-t-elle l’obligation de répondre?  Quelle a été la demande, précisément (identification des premiers acheteurs sur base de numéros de série publiés dans la presse? si oui, quels numéros de série, exactement? et retrouvés en Syrie?)  Je croyais que ce n’était pas la responsabilité des Affaires Etrangères, mais il semble que le ministère s’en occupe tout de même, qu’en est-il?
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This article, of Christophe Lamfalussy, was published not so long ago, in La Libre Belgique, along my piece on the COARM report (see here).

Some context: the Belgian Foreign Affairs Minister, Didier Reynders, was visiting the Gulf countries recently. In Qatar, he made a declaration regarding the information we uncovered about the Belgian arms diversion tacking place in Syria:

In Qatar, Reynders also asked the country not to re-export to Gaza and the Syrian opposition the arms of the FN [FN Herstal, Belgian small arms producer]. The government asked FN, based on pictures published in the press and on the serial numbers of the weapons, to verify the origin of the Belgian arms.

This is an interesting twist in the investigation, especially after Mister Reynders said at first that this was not the competence of the federal government:

D. Reynders answers the parliamentary question of N. Lijnen regarding the diversion of Belgian arms to Syri…

These are the questions that I asked to the Belgian Foreign Affairs. The answers did not come yet.

“Au Qatar, Reynders a également demandé que le pays ne réexporte pas vers Gaza et vers l’opposition syrienne les armes de la FN. Le gouvernement a demandé à la FN, sur base de photos publiés dans la presse et des numéros gravés sur les armes, de vérifier l’origine des armes belges, très réputées au Moyen-Orient.”

  • Pourriez-vous m’en dire un peu plus? 
  • Est-ce Monsieur Reynders (les Affaires Etrangères) qui a fait cette demande à la FN? 
  • Sous quelle forme? 
  • Quand cette demande a-t-elle été faite? 
  • Pour quand attendez-vous une réponse? 
  • La FN a-t-elle l’obligation de répondre? 
  • Quelle a été la demande, précisément (identification des premiers acheteurs sur base de numéros de série publiés dans la presse? si oui, quels numéros de série, exactement? et retrouvés en Syrie?) 
  • Je croyais que ce n’était pas la responsabilité des Affaires Etrangères, mais il semble que le ministère s’en occupe tout de même, qu’en est-il?

Yesterday, July 30, 2012, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Laurent Fabius, gave an interview to to French radio RTL in which he declared (at 1:00) that “Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and other countries are shipping weapons to the Syrian rebels”. 

This declaration is quite interesting in regard with an earlier reaction of the Walloon government on that very same question. Answering to a parliamentary question, the Minister-President Rudy Demotte declared, on June 26, 2012, that there were “so far no proof that the Gulf countries were diverting weapons made in the EU to the Syrian opposition”. Qatar and Saudi Arabia are major importers of EU weapons, and are not manufacturing their own small arms. In case of weapons diversion, new export licenses could be suspended. To understand the full extend of the problem, you might want to read this article on my blog, and this one, as well as this one on the New York Times.

***

Hier, le 30 juillet 2012, Laurent Fabius, ministre français des Affaires Etrangère, donnait une interview à la radio française RTL dans laquelle il a déclaré que “le Qatar, l’Arabie Saoudite et d’autres pays fournissent des armes aux rebelles syriens”.

Cette déclaration est assez intéressante lorsqu’on la met en perspective avec la réaction de la Région Wallonne sur la même question. Répondant à une question parlementaire, le ministre-président Rudy Demotte déclarait, le 26 juin 2012, qu’il n’y avait “actuellement pas de preuve de détournement d’armes en provenance de l’Union Européenne par le Qatar vers la Syrie” (omettant au passage l’Arabie Saoudite). Le Qatar et l’Arabie Saoudite sont d’importants importateurs d’armes européennes, ne fabriquant pas leur propre armes légères. En cas de détournement, les nouvelles licences d’exportation d’armes pourraient se voir suspendues. Pour comprendre l’étendue de la problématique, vous pouvez lire cet article sur mon blog, ainsi que celui-ci et celui-ci sur le New York Times.

Will the Walloon Region keep on selling weapons to Qatar and Saudi Arabia?

After those two countries publicly declared that they wanted to arm the Syrian rebels, after reports that they were already doing it, that was the question to ask. You can find out why here and here.

The Walloon Region did not want to disclose what its policy would be regarding those two countries. The Demotte cabinet referred to another organ of the Walloon administration. The latest did not know anything about the policy and said that they were not entitled to speak about it, referring back to the Demotte cabinet.The decision, though, was made around April 26. Two months later, on June 26 exactly, we can finally know that the Walloon Region does not consider that Saudi Arabia and Qatar present a risk of arms re-exportation to the Syrian rebels.

Eventually, in order to know what the decision of the Walloon Region was, a parliamentary question had to be asked. The answer came a few days ago.

Réponse de Rudy Demotte à la question parlementaire de Luc Tiberghien concernant les licences d’exportation…

More information tomorrow, on Saturday June 30, in Le Soir (in French) and on Monday July 2, on Apache (in Dutch).

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Update, Saturday June 30: it seems that the article in French might be published on Monday too.

The fierce government assaults from the air are partly a response to improved tactics and weaponry among the opposition forces, which have recently received more powerful antitank missiles from Turkey, with the financial support of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, according to members of the Syrian National Council, the main opposition group in exile, and other activists. The United States, these activists said, was consulted about these weapons transfers. Officials in Washington said the United States did not take part in arms shipments to the rebels, though they recognized that Syria’s neighbors would do so, and that it was important to ensure that weapons did not end up in the hands of Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups. (…) Speaking in Istanbul, council members also described efforts to supply the opposition with arms, specifically antitank weaponry delivered by Turkish Army vehicles to the Syrian border, where it was then transferred to smugglers who took it into Syria. Turkey has repeatedly denied that it is giving anything other than humanitarian aid to the opposition, mostly at refugee camps near the border. It has recently made those camps harder to visit: permission was not granted to two reporters in the vicinity for five days last week. Turkey did not act alone, but with financial support from Qatar and Saudi Arabia and after consultation with the United States, said these officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the subject’s diplomatic delicacy. “Heavier Weapons Push Syrian Crisis Toward Civil War”, The New York Times, June, 12, 2012. Photo: Rebel fighters with the Free Syrian Army at a house in Aleppo. On the left, 6 50.00 FN FAL can be seen. (Associated Press)
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The fierce government assaults from the air are partly a response to improved tactics and weaponry among the opposition forces, which have recently received more powerful antitank missiles from Turkey, with the financial support of Saudi Arabia and Qatar, according to members of the Syrian National Council, the main opposition group in exile, and other activists.

The United States, these activists said, was consulted about these weapons transfers. Officials in Washington said the United States did not take part in arms shipments to the rebels, though they recognized that Syria’s neighbors would do so, and that it was important to ensure that weapons did not end up in the hands of Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups.

(…)

Speaking in Istanbul, council members also described efforts to supply the opposition with arms, specifically antitank weaponry delivered by Turkish Army vehicles to the Syrian border, where it was then transferred to smugglers who took it into Syria.

Turkey has repeatedly denied that it is giving anything other than humanitarian aid to the opposition, mostly at refugee camps near the border. It has recently made those camps harder to visit: permission was not granted to two reporters in the vicinity for five days last week. Turkey did not act alone, but with financial support from Qatar and Saudi Arabia and after consultation with the United States, said these officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the subject’s diplomatic delicacy.

“Heavier Weapons Push Syrian Crisis Toward Civil War”, The New York Times, June, 12, 2012.

Photo: Rebel fighters with the Free Syrian Army at a house in Aleppo. On the left, 6 50.00 FN FAL can be seen. (Associated Press)

Syrian rebels are being armed by Saudi Arabia and Qatar

Syrian rebels are being armed by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, The Independent has learnt, in a development that threatens to inflame a regional power struggle provoked by the 15-month-old uprising against the Assad regime.

Rebel fighters from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) have received weapons from the two Gulf countries, which were transported into Syria via Turkey with the implicit support of the country’s intelligence agency, MIT, according to a Western diplomat in Ankara.

After the publication of my pieces in The New York Times (1 and 2), Le Soir and Apache about the fact that the Walloon Government would have to take a decision regarding arms export licenses to Qatar and Saudi Arabia after those countries publicly claimed they wanted to arm the Syrian rebels, a question was asked in the Walloon Parliament (see the video, in French). Here is the transcription (starts page 10, in French).

Compte rendu séances parlement wallon

Rudy Demotte, minister-president of the Walloon Region, the authority delivering arms export licenses and the only shareholder of the weapons fabric FN Herstal, recognized that Qatar and Saudi Arabia pose a risk of re-export of arms (as stated by the criterion 7 of the European Common Position).

By allowing new licenses, the Walloon Region breaches this point of the European reglement. By suspending new licenses, the Walloon Region threatened its arms industry.

Mister Demotte said that he was waiting for a COARM advice, to see what the other EU member states would do, before taking a decision. According to the Walloon Region, this advice had come, and will be followed, but has to remain confidential. According to other sources, the COARM didn’t discuss the matter, and their has been no advice whatsoever. More to come this month!

Somehow I missed this video last year. The Emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, recognized on CNN providing weapons to the rebels during the war. “That’s how we understood it (UN Resolution 1973)”, he said. “And that’s what the Foreign Minister of Italy, two days ago, in Doha, announced.” “If they ask for weapons, we are going to provide them”, he added.

Transcript on CNN website

Did Qatar provide Belgian FN FALs to Libyan fighters?

As I flight home after having spent three weeks in Libya looking for the Belgian weapons used during the 2011 revolution, I had to think again about some of the questions this trip uncovered. Among those is the one of the Belgian FN FALs from Qatar. Early February, as I was driving East, on the desert road to Benghazi, the presence of the FN FAL grew bigger. All the FALs I could observe shared one common point: they were all made in Belgium. But there was some small differences between the Belgian FAL seen in the West (Tripoli, Misrata) et those seen in the East (Benghazi).

In interviews, fighters in the East said to me that their Belgian weapons had been shipped from Qatar during the revolution. A fighter who used to work at the Benghazi airport was pretty positive about that, saying he saw crates of FN FAL coming from Qatar around April 2011. Videos and pictures published on the internet seem to go in that direction. 

Two things are clear: 1) Muammar el-Gaddafi kept large stocks of Belgian FN FALs. Those stocks were looted by rebels during the war and the FAL was often seen on the front lines. 2) Qatar supplied the rebels with weapons and ammunitions during the conflict. Nic Marsh, at NISAT, wrote about it here, here, and here.

Only one thing remains unclear to me: were FN FALs undoubtedly part of the Qatar’s shipments?

According to this article in The Guardian, echoed by this one in Foreign Affairs, they were. I’m still trying to get primary sources and more pieces of evidence confirming this.

There are maybe details I’m missing, details you could see. Have a look at those two Belgian FALs. The fighters I interviewed were positive about it: these rifles were supplied by Qatar. Is there any detail confirming it on the guns themselves? If yes, drop me a line: damien.spleeters@gmail.com

In April, Qatari transport aircraft regularly departed Doha with armaments for the rebels, including (…) Belgian-made FN assault rifles.

Cet article de Foreign Affairs semble confirmer ce que nous évoquions après avoir vu cette vidéo d’une cargaison d’armes en provenance du Qatar interceptée par les forces fidèles au régime de Kadhafi. Des armes et des munitions de fabrication belge ont été fournies aux rebelles par le Qatar. Ceci soulève quelques questions et nécessite davantage de recherche. Je mettrai cet article à jour lorsque j’en saurai plus.

Il est pour l’instant impossible de vérifier indépendamment la provenance des FAL présents sur les images. Mais nous avons vu que le logo de la FN Herstal est indiqué sur l’emballage des munitions (voir la vidéo). Une autre indication attire l’attention: la mention du Pakistan sur certaines boîtes. Mais rien n’indique pour l’instant ce que contenait ces boîtes.

En arrière-plan, des FAL interceptés par les forces pro-Kadhafi en juillet 2011 en provenance du Qatar. (via Al Jazeera, image EPA)

(merci à Raphael Thelen de m’avoir signalé l’article de Foreign Affairs)

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