POLITICS-SLOVAKIA: New Laws to Tighten Flows of Money and Arms

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Ed Holt

BRATISLAVA, Oct 19 2001 (IPS) - A raft of laws — designed to protect against weapons falling into the wrong hands and protecting against the use of Slovak financial institutions by terror groups — have been passed in the wake of the Sep 11 bombings on New York and Washington.

In response to growing concerns among government leaders that new legislation was needed to tighten up Slovak controls on flows of money, arms and what the state calls “sensitive products” through its borders, two key laws have been passed in the last three weeks.

Soldiers also have been drafted in to help border police patrol the country’s eastern border with the Ukraine.

On Oct 5 new legislation gave Slovakia the power to freeze assets of organisations it suspects of being involved with terrorism or other illegal activities.

On Sep 27 government passed a set of amendments to laws on the export and imports of “dual-use” goods by cabinet designed to make it harder for unscrupulous firms, both in and outside Slovakia, profit from weapons trading.

But in spite of the laws, the central European state, along with its former federal neighbour, the Czech Republic, is still having problems with controlling trade and shipping of weapons across its borders, and tracking financial accounts will remain difficult, say independent bodies monitoring arms trading and terrorist activities.

“The Slovak government should have not just dealt with trade in ‘dual use’ goods, but also in weapons. Slovak parliament still has no direct control over arms exports – there is no public accountability,” said Matus Korba, defence expert and Slovak cooperator with the British-based weapons trade monitoring group Saferworld.

“These people are incredibly good at covering their tracks. And frankly, it is unlikely anyone like bin Laden would be using Slovakia for these kind of activities,” said Alex Vatanka of Jane’s Information Group, one of the foremost authorities on defence matters.

As supplier to many of the Warsaw Pact countries during the Cold War, Czechoslovakia was in 1987 the third largest arms exporter in the world.

However, following the fall of communism in central Europe in 1989, and the closure of arms factories, disposal of the huge weapons stockpiles at some military producers in both countries was not monitored carefully, say defence experts.

Reports of Czechoslovak weapons emerging in conflict zones appear periodically. During NATO raids on Serbia in 1999 a U.S. stealth bomber was lost over Serb airspace.

Serb media claimed that the plane, designed to be virtually undetectable by radar, was tracked and fired on using the Czechoslovak Tamara radar system.

Czech and Slovak authorities denied knowledge of any sales to Serbia of the radar system, but later admitted that much military hardware dating back to before the fall of communism in central Europe in 1989 could not accurately be accounted for.

Some weapons have ended up in the hands of terrorist groups, including the plastic explosive Semtex, produced almost exclusively in Czechoslovakia for decades.

“There is a legacy left from the former Czechoslovakia with weapons (unaccounted for),” said Ivo Samson of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association (SFPA).

Both countries are also viewed by defence monitors as trading routes for guns supplied directly to terrorists. Three men suspected of links to the Real IRA, a terrorist splinter group from the Irish Republican Army (IRA), were arrested in Slovakia July 6.

The men were thought to have been involved in plans to buy weapons for the terrorist organisation, probably from Croatia, and then ship them to the Irish Republic through central Europe.

The arrest was the second incident involving the detention of people in central Europe with suspected links to Irish terrorist groups. In August last year, Croat police seized a shipment of arms including a rocket launcher allegedly destined for Dublin, the capital of Ireland.

Weapons used by terrorist groups in Ireland, including the Real IRA, have previously been traced to the Balkans region.

Since 1996 Slovakia and the Czech Republic have complied with a UN protocol on the trade of arms and “dual use” goods to certain countries. But even senior government officials have admitted controls on the sales of weapons and dangerous products until they had been lax.

“I have information that between 1995 and 1996 there were goods which were exported to countries that could have been used by individuals co-operating with people who commit terrorist actions,” said Slovak Economy Minister Lubomir Harach.

He declined, however, to name the firms.

Chemicals firm Chemko Strazske and industrial vehicles manufacturer Zetor have recently denied trading with Wahid el Hage, a known cooperative of Osama bin Laden, in the mid 1990s. El Hage testified in a US court that he had had dealings with Slovak firms to buy tractors.

Chemko Strazske, once a chemical giant in the former Czechoslovakia, was alleged to have dealt with him on the purchase of industrial agricultural fertiliser. Some chemicals used extensively in agriculture, such as ammonium nitrate, can be used to make explosives.

At the start of this year, Slovakia was involved in another arms scandal, again connected with weapons transport to Angola. The Slovak firm OSOS was implicated by French sources in supplying arms to the African state in deals mediated by son of former French President Francois Mitterand, Jean-Christophe.

There is also evidence to suggest that weapons sold directly from both states end up in the hands of terrorist organisations elsewhere around the globe.

“There is evidence of weapons from the Czech and Slovak Republics, mainly guns and explosives, being shipped to Africa. Whether or not shipments of weapons end up in the hands of terrorists is anyone’s guess,” said Vatanka of Jane’s Information Group.

“They go to Eritrea, which appears to be hostile to the Sudan (a country strongly linked with terrorist organisations), but the controls on these transports just aren’t that strict,” he added.

However, in the wake of the terror attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon on Sep 11, intense media scrutiny of individual countries’ arms trades and a recognition among many governments to tighten up controls on trade in weapons and products, the situation may change positively.

“Thanks to more attention on these issues, more cases, like this one at Bratislava airport, will be brought to light,” said Vladimir Bilcik of the SFPA.

Media played a key role in bringing to light a seizure of weapons at Bratislava airport on Sep 29. A shipment of 504 anti- tank missiles was seized at the airport as police squads foiled an apparent attempt to transport the arms from Tehran, Iran, to Angola.

Airport authorities seized the cargo after discovering the falsely declared goods when checking transport documents.

Both EU and NATO expansion should also be a spur for closer internal monitoring of trades. Eleven of the 15 EU member states produce annual reports on their arms trading. Slovakia, along with neighbours Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary, does not.

“Slovakia should start producing this report. Poland will start doing so next year and there is a strong possibility that Romania and the Czech Republic will do the same in 2002,” said Saferworld’s Korba.

The Slovak Economy Ministry insists the new controls approved by cabinet not only bring Slovak legislation on weapons trades into line with European Union guidelines, but also reduce the risk of goods meant for civilian sectors ending up in the hands of people who could use products for military purposes.