Human rights watchdog Amnesty International has accused a Ukrainian state-run defense sector company Ukrinmash of illegally selling arms to South Sudan, the world’s youngest, and conflict-riven, state.
In a report published on Sept. 25, the rights group said it had obtained documents proving that in 2014, the Ukrainian company signed a commercial deal to sell arms to African nation via two other firms, one registered in the United Kingdom and the other in the United Arab Emirates.
According to the report, the deal – worth $169 million in total – would provide the South Sudanese defense ministry with “thousands of machine guns, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and millions of rounds of ammunition.”
Oil-rich South Sudan split from the rest of Sudan and became independent in 2011. But since December 2013 a civil war has raged in the newborn nation that has already claimed at least 50,000 lives, according to the United Nations.
Amnesty International says it was provided with two sets of commercial and official documents by two separate sources in the United Kingdom.
The report says that in early 2014, soon after an upsurge of the violence in South Sudan, its government signed a contract to buy weapons with one of the largest private arms suppliers in the Middle East, the International Golden Group based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Later, the South Sudanese embassy in the UAE issued two end-user certificates, in April and June 2014, to confirm itself as the ultimate consumer of the weapon supplies. In particular, the deal was meant to provide the African nation’s military with 50,000 AKMS Kalashnikov assault rifles and 50 million cartridges for them, as well as with 10,000 RPG-7 grenade launchers and 30,000 rounds for them.
Amnesty says that according to the documents, the UAE-based International Golden Group is specified as “Importer”, while the Ukrainian state-run Ukrinmash, which is a subsidiary to the defense industry concern UkrOboronProm, is stated as the deal’s “Exporter”.
On Aug. 14, 2014, Ukrinmash eventually signed a contract worth $169.28 million with the UAE-based weapons trader. However, the end user certificate issued in April 2014 includes an additional intermediary “Supplier” for the UAE-Ukraine deal – the S-Profit company registered in London. According to the documents, the S-Profit was meant to purchase $46 million worth of weapons from Ukrinmash and supply them to International Golden Group.
Meanwhile, UK registers show S-Profit to be a non-specialized wholesale trade firm currently run by Artem Zabora, a Ukrainian national. According to the company’s registration documents, Zabora was appointed director on July 12, 2011, and gave Ukraine as his country of residence.
Back in autumn 2014, S-Profit and its director were already involved in a corruption row. According to an investigation in the autumn of 2014 by the Groshi TV program, the Ukrinmash was selling thousands of Kalashnikov rifles and RPG launchers at a low price to the UK-based firm.
Groshi journalists said the usual price for a Kalashnikov rifle sold to South Sudan was roughly $2,500 per unit, while the state-run Ukrainian exporter was selling them to S-Profit at less than half that – $1,200. S-Profit then sold the guns on to the UAE-based International Golden Group at the usual price and gaining a super-profit.
According to the investigation, the deal could have been worth up to $150 million. S-Profit was described by Groshi as “a typical shell company.”
In a response to Amnesty’s claims, S-Profit denied that it had been delivering products to South Sudan, although it did not say whether it had it played an intermediary role in the deal between the Ukrinmash and the International Golden Group.
Amnesty said the UAE-based company had not respond to its requests for comment as of the time of publication either.
Meanwhile, an unnamed representative of the Ukrinmash told the Ukrainska Pravda news outlet on Sept. 25 that the state-run defense company had never provided the mentioned weapons to South Sudan.
“The contract was signed but not fulfilled.” the Ukrinmash official said. “It did not take place, and could not…the contract was void. An export license (for it) was not issued.”
Ukrinmash gave media a copy of a letter to Amnesty International dated Aug. 21 asserting that all of the contacts had been voided.
In its report, the watchdog said it “has not been able to determine whether some or all of the weapons listed in these documents have yet been delivered to South Sudan.” However, it accuses Kyiv of contravening the international Arms Trade Treaty signed by the country on Sept. 23, 2014, saying that by supplying weapons to South Sudan, Ukraine facilitates human rights violations in the war-torn African nation.
While Ukraine has not ratified the document yet, the treaty has been considered to be in force since late December 2015, as at least 50 other member nations had already approved it by then.
Despite ongoing disputes in the United Nations Security Council continuing since late 2013, a complete arms embargo on South Sudan has never been imposed.
