Think it’s difficult to bypass arms controls? Think again. It’s easy for those that know the loopholes.

Who cares about end use certificates?

Some governments demand to see an end use certificate identifying where arms are going and what they are to be used for. But arms dealers can still get the weapons to their clients because this system is easy to bypass – either because the licensing body does little to verify it, or because certificates are obtained through corrupt channels. Often, the arms end up in a different place because the destination cited in the certificate is only a transit stop or simply fake.

Take Canada, for example. Thirty-three Canadian military helicopters were sent to Colombia – a country with a terrible human rights record – despite the fact that the Canadian government has strict controls over arms sales there.

How did this happen? Loopholes in the Canadian law allowed the weapons to first be sent to the USA, a country for which Canada does not require and end-use certificate, and where there are no re-export guarantees.

Brokering arms is easy

Arms brokers are the middlemen who arrange transfers between sellers and buyers. Many stand accused of supplying weapons to some of the world’s worst conflicts, human rights crisis zones, and areas subject to UN arms embargoes including Angola, Afghanistan, Iraq, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone, to name but a few.

Supported by arms transporters and financiers they avoid detection by using ‘off shore’ bank accounts and by using transporters who know how to cover their tracks.

“Mostly the stuff we carried were brand new AKs [kalashnikov assault rifles] plus the ammunition. It is quite a standard operation for us. …We know there is a war on. We are not involved in it, because we’re just charter pilots really. …To me it’s all freight. But, er, obviously this, er, some of it is not too good.” Captain Brian ‘Sport’ Martin, who flew arms from Rwanda and Uganda into the rebel-held town of Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 2000

Licensed to kill?

A growing number of arms companies export their expertise and arms technology which allow weapons to be made under licence in other countries. So, even if these countries are engaged in, or export arms to, conflicts in which gross human rights abuses are committed, this practice allows arms exporters to effectively bypass controls prohibiting arms sales there.

Governments in at least fifteen countries, including France, USA, UK, Israel, Switzerland, and Germany, permit companies to license the production of their arms and ammunition in forty-five other countries. Many of these countries have even weaker arms-export controls, greatly increasing the likelihood that the weapons they produce will be used to carry out atrocities, and destroy lives and livelihoods.

“[UK arms sales to Angola and Uganda] make claims of an ethical policy a sham. The Government has been hypocritical on this issue…and British companies are profiting from it. There’s blood on the government’s hands over this.” Norman lamb, Member of Parliament, United Kingdom, 2003