Russian Lord of War Arrested in Thailand
// The U.S. is extraditing Viktor Bout
Notorious Russian businessman Viktor Bout was arrested yesterday in one of the most fashionable hotel in Bangkok, the Sofitel Silom Road. Bout was wanted by Belgian authorities until recently, but the order for his arrest in Thailand was issued on the request of the United States, where he is considered him a major illegal dealer in arms and he is accused of violating UN embargos in regional conflict zones in Africa. The Russian Interior Ministry states that is has no claims against Bout.
Viktor Bout, 41, was arrested at 11:00 a.m., local time, on the 27th floor of the Sofitel Silom Road. The arrest was made by local police and took place so quickly that many of the employees of the hotel were unaware that it had happened. The Russian embassy in Thailand did not know about his arrest ether. “We are confirming the information about his arrest,” embassy press secretary Alexey Bulkin told Kommersant. “In any case, local authorities are supposed to inform us of the arrest of any Russian citizen within 24 hours.” It was learned from other sources that Bout arrived from the United Arab Emirates at the end of January for business negotiations. U.S. and Belgian authorities had been pursuing Bout in the Emirates, where he also has citizenship, and had demanded his extradition several times. The extradition requests were politely refused on the grounds that Emirate authorities had no information about illegal activities by Bout. Interpol representatives in Russia stated yesterday that Russian law enforcement has made no charges against Bout either, but had taken him into custody at the request of Belgian authorities. Peter Danssaert, an expert on the illegal arms trade at the International Peace Information Service who has long been tracking Bout's activities, told Kommersant that “In Belgium, a case was brought against him for the laundering of large sums of money [in the city of Ostend, where he lived and ran several companies for some years], but it was dropped and the international arrest warrant was canceled.”
It was discovered late in the evening Moscow time that Bout's arrest in Thailand was carried out at the request of the U.S. The U.S. Justice Department held a press conference about the arrest several hours later. Even before that, a source in the U.S. government told Kommersant that the arrest warrant for Bout was signed at the end of January. Bout was suspected by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration of providing supplies to foreign terrorist organizations. The official specified that they had the Colombian FARC in mind. He added that Russia was not involved in the operation to arrest Bout, which was the result of Thai-American law enforcement cooperation.
U.S. authorities have been watching Bout since the late 1990s due to suspicions of his illegal arms and ammunition trading. The first action was taken only in 2006, however, when U.S. President George W. Bush signed an order freezing all of Bout's assets as someone who threatened the realization of U.S. foreign policy in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He was also the prototype for the previous year's Hollywood film Lord of War. Paramount Pictures is preparing to shoot another picture about the U.S. secret service's fight with Bout.
“Personally, I always considered the case of Viktor Bout somewhat overstated,” commented Danssaert. “I'm not saying that he did not reship weapons to war zones and did not make money from it. But let's not forget that the largest arms sellers are the U.S., France, China and Russia. They frequently use those like Bout for their own interests.” The expert said that one of Bout's suspected accomplices is Richard Chichakli, an American of Syrian origin. “As far as I know, the U.S. Treasury Department froze or seized many of his assets in the U.S., but never accused him of anything in court,” Danssaert said.
Bout himself practically never commented on the accusations against him. One of the few exceptions to that rules was in 2002, when he stated on Echo of Moscow radio that his basic activities are air transshipping and that he “was never involved in the arms trade.”
Who Is Viktor Bout
Viktor Anatolyevich Bout was born in Dushanbe on January 13, 1967. In the late 1980s, he graduated from the Military Institute of Foreign Languages in Moscow and served in Angola in the UN contingent until 1991. In 1992, he went to the Republic of South Africa. Some information indicates that he began his business when he illegal received several airplanes and helicopters from Russian enterprises, took them abroad and began working in transshipment.
He began transporting flowers and food products. By the mid-1990s, he has a reputation as an illegal arms trader. The media named his clients as governments and partisan organizations in Asia and Africa (Afghanistan, Angola, Togo, Rwanda, Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Taliban and al-Qaeda).
In 1995, Bout moved to Belgium. Three years later, when Belgian authorities began to take an interest in his sources of income, he moved to the United Arab Emirates, where his airline, Air Cess Liberia, is headquartered. It has more than 50 planes based in various countries.
Bout was mentioned as one of the world's largest arms traders in reports by the UN Security Council (December 2002), Amnesty International (July 2005 and May 2006) and the U.S. State Department. They claim, in particular, that Bout made no less than 38 deliveries to southern African rebels, including UNITA, in violation of a UN embargo. According to the UN, he trades in arms from Ukraine, Moldova and Bulgaria. The UN has placed Bout on the list of persons whose assets are to be frozen.
Law enforcement in a number of countries have pursued Bout. A search by Belgian police of the home of Bout's business partner Sanjivan Ruprah On February 8, 2002, provided proof of his involvement in illegal arms trading.
Oleg Rubnikovich, Tamila Dzhodzhua; Dmitry Sidorov, Washington
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 07, 2008
|
