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.

cjchivers:

A Weapon’s Journey.

The most likely arc? Made in Belgium for American-designed anti-tank weapons. Sold and shipped to Col. Muammar el-Qaddfi in Libya after he deposed King Idris, upended relations with the United States and sought fresh sources for arms. Seized decades later by looters who carted away the Brother-Leader’s arms stockpiles and turned part of his own arsenal against him, and cached or sold the rest. Smuggled to Mali for use by Islamists who overran the country’s north. Visible again now after the Islamists were smacked from the air in Konna during a French-led military attack, and lost custody of their weapons, too.

Arms and ordnance can sometimes point to history in remarkably rich ways. The NR-160 projectile seen in the top photograph, above, appears to be about as rich a case as they come. It’s a marker of the see-saw (and alternately naive and cynical) contests for primacy in North Africa, and just as much an artifact of its times as Patty Heart’s M-1 carbine. It also underlines the costly and lingering effects of the West’s military intervention in Libya, during and after which NATO and most of the allied nations showed little interest and took little action to stop the flow of weapons that the NATO air campaign helped accelerate.

A hat-tip or eleven: The photographs above were made by Rich Valdmanis, the deputy chief correspondent in West Africa for Reuters, who, with David Lewis and Eric Gaillard, was the first to take the trouble to document the presence of 106-millimeter projectiles in contested territory in Mali. Mr. Gaillard filed a photograph of one of the projectiles to the wire service, the use of which helped us to identify the weapon, check it against our registry of weapons and ordnance known to have been in Libya, and then, with a timely dash into the records by Damien Spleeters, an independent arms researcher, to work backward through export licenses in Belgium’s state archives and sketch more of the history. Mr. Valdmanis and Mr. Lewis also provided local tactical context, and Mr. Valdmanis shared the photographs above. Tyler Hicks meanwhile scoured Konna and found more samples of Belgian 106s in former Islamist positions. Neil Corney and James Bevan added regional insight, and John Ismay’s archival digging on America’s cold war military engagement with Libya, and how it failed, interlocked neatly with this fresh case. Three other friends from the ordnance field pitched in, but they prefer to keep their names out of it.

The result is here, on the NYT, with Tyler’s photographs.

We say it often: data-sharing and collaboration between field and archival researchers are often essential to illuminating the complexities and far-flung connections that show how arms actually move about the world. Look away from those annual reports that tell you, with assumed gravitas, which countries exported what dollar amounts of weapons. They tell you very little, and almost nothing about how weapons actually find their way to war. 

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHS

A NR-160 projectile in Konna, damaged and separated from its cartridge case. The NR-160 is a high-explosive anti-tank round fired through the M40 series of recoilless rifles. Bottom, markings on the bottom of a companion 106-millimeter round from P.R.B., the same Belgian manufacturer. This is a HESH round. Both by Rich Valdmanis. More about 106s, HESH rounds and North Africa here, with sad and grisly video by Andre Liohn. There’s plenty more to say. But other leads are stacked up this morning. Best get to them.

More details on the Belgian side of the story as soon as I get some time to write it… stay tuned.

November 2008, the Belgian arms producer FN Herstal, owned by the Walloon government, has already signed a contract in May with Gaddafi’s Libya and is waiting for the export licenses the government has to issue. 

In the meantime, representatives of the company are in Tripoli, on the occasion of the LibDex 2008, to present their products. Those products would, eventually, be found by a reported in the hands of the fighters who captured them from the soldiers of the 32nd “Khamis” Brigade during the 2011 conflict. For more information about this, click here.

image

On this photo, the third man from the left (blue suit, not hat, white hair) is Abu-Bakr Yunis, who was the Libyan Minister of Defense under Gaddafi. He was reportedly killed during the battle of Sirte, in October 2011. The first man from the left is Reefi Shreef, head of the Gaddafi Air and Air Defense Forces, said a Libyan activist who added that the man in brown suit, with glasses, facing the camera is the general manager of Waha Expo, where the LixDex 2008 was organized.

Who are the Belgian representatives? One of them is probably this “Mr. Michel” quoted in 2008 by the Tripoli Post: 

We supply Pistols, over assault riffles, light and medium machine guns and several kinds of weapons for ant-rioting. We worked closely with Libyan defense force since seventies, let say after the attainment of Libya’s independence, we do appreciate our partnership.

To see the other pictures, scroll left and right, above. If you recognize any of the persons on these pictures, please contact me at @damspleet.

h/t Libyan Proud

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The pictures were all found on the website of the LibDex

Pictures expose proliferation of Belgian weapons out of Libya, bound for Syria

End of April 2012, the Lebanese Army intercepted a ship, the Letfallah II (often wrongly identified as the “Lutfallah II”), near the nothern coast of Lebanon. The ship was suspected to transport weapons from Libya destined to the Syrian rebels.(1)

Pictures were scarce, and did not show much of what was actually found in the three containers seized onboard. One website seems to have had access to those containers and provide with about 160 photographs of what appears to have been found. Caveat emptor with the source, though, which does not inspire credibility. So far, however, we have found no reason to doubt the legitimacy of the pictures.

Some are republished here, with the source embedded in them, so that you can go and have a look at the whole batch. 

First, two pictures of the boat itself.



A picture of the three containers.



Some pictures that would lead to think that what was found in these containers was from Libya.

But what interests us here is the fact that some of the weapons found in those containers could be traced back to Belgium. It could be part of military equipment Belgium could have sold to Libya in the last decades (further documentation is needed to confirm this).

PRB M3 AT mines



FN ammo boxes

And FAL rifles – thorough examination of the rifles would be needed to identify the manufacturer; but during our research in Libya, we did not found FAL rifles coming from other countries than Belgium.


This case raises the question of other arms shipments that would have made their way from Libya to Syria without interception. Besides, it highlights, once more, the Belgian small arms proliferation problem.

The Letfallah II case will be added to our map of FAL rifles proliferation out of Libya.

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(1)  For more information on the case, see “Rough Seas, Maritime Transport and Arms Shipments”, by Sergio Finardi and Peter Danssaert, July 10, 2012 (pp. 56-66). The report raises some interesting questions regarding the weapons seized onboard of the ship. 

NOTE: These pictures are posted here solely for the purpose of documenting the use of the FAL rifle in conflicts. Although there are a lot of pictures of FAL rifles, will be published those where three variations of the rifle can be determined: the handguard, the upper receiver, the buttstock. There might be some exceptions to this general rule. When it is possible, the author of the picture will be mentioned. When the author is unknown, this fact will be mentioned.

NOTE: For the need of a research on the FAL rifle-variations seen in the 2011 Libyan conflict, some pictures will be posted here. These pictures will be posted here solely for the purpose of documenting the use of the FAL rifle in Libya. Although there are a lot of pictures of FAL rifles from Libya, will be published those where three variations of the rifle can be determined: the handguard, the upper receiver, the buttstock. There might be some exceptions to this general rule. When it is possible, the author of the picture will be mentioned. When the author is unknown, this fact will be mentioned.

You can also find a PDF version below.

Confronted to FAL rifles ? Here’s a simple guide showing what is important to take picture of.

Les armes doivent être livrées pour la fin du mois d’avril, sous peine de pénalités. Elles sont prêtes et sont spécifiquement marquées en langue arabe.

- Jeudi 9 avril 2009. Dépêche Belga.

Cette dépêche m’avait échappée. Des notes de colisage portant sur une partie de la commande libyenne passée à la FN Herstal en 2008 avait été retrouvée à Tripoli durant le conflit en 2011. Elle montrait que cette partie de la commande était prête le 15 mai 2009, soit environ trois semaines avant l’octroi des premières licences d’exportation d’armes par la Région Wallonnes (licences qui seront ensuite suspendues, puis annulées par le Conseil d’Etat, dont la décision n’a pas porté à conséquences puisque la commande a été honorée).

Cette dépêche de l’agence de presse belge Belga montre que les armes étaient apparemment prêtes dès avril 2009 et qu’elles ont bien été marquées au nom de la 32e Brigade “Khamis” en Belgique.

“Ces armes sont estampillées uniquement pour la Libye”, affirmera par ailleurs, en octobre 2009, Dominique Depresseux, délégué CSC Metal à la FN Herstal.

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.

Mapping the Belgian FN FAL proliferation out of Libya after the 2011 conflict

This map shows where FN FAL diverted from Libya have been found so far. I’ll update it when new information is coming. Click on the points on the map to have more information about it and see the source.


Afficher Belgian FN FAL proliferation out of Libya following the 2011 conflict sur une carte plus grande

One of the 2000 FN303 sold by Belgium to Libya in 2008 and shipped in 2009. With the marking of the 32nd Brigade (made in Belgium). And the barcode with the same numbers as on the export documents found in Salahaddin (Tripoli), at the headquarter of the 32nd Brigade.

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Photos by Damien Spleeters, Tripoli, February 2012.

One of the 367 FN P90 sold by Belgium to Libya in 2008 and shipped in 2009. With the marking of the 32nd Brigade (made in Belgium). And the barcode found under the stock, with the same numbers as on the export documents found in Salahaddin (Tripoli), at the headquarter of the 32nd Brigade.

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Photos by Damien Spleeters, Ajdabiya, February 2012.

One of the 367 FN F2000 sold by Belgium to Libya in 2008 and shipped in 2009. With the marking of the 32nd Brigade (made in Belgium) on the grenade-launcher and on the weapon itself. And the barcode found under the stock, with the same numbers as on the export documents found in Salahaddin (Tripoli), at the headquarter of the 32nd Brigade.

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Photos by Damien Spleeters, Tripoli, June 2012.

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