South Sudan lauds Ukraine over denial of arm dealings

September 28, 2017 (JUBA/NAIROBI) – South Sudan government on Thursday welcomed a statement by the Ukrainian government, denying that its state service of export control did not permit any company involved in arms deal to export arms to any nation, including South Sudan.

“At least we are vindicated. The statement by the government of Ukraine is very clear and speaks the truth that the government has never procured arms from Ukraine and any other European countries to use in the war. But the others, especially the so called human organisations have been releasing statements and reports which are incorrect, just to mislead the people and the entire world”, South Sudanese cabinet affairs minister told Sudan Tribune on Thursday.

He said his country was free to acquire weapons from any country in fulfillment of constitutional requirements for the national army to be equipped and professionalized to the level of a conventional army.

The minister’s remarks comes in the wake of a statement the Ukrainian government issued, denying accusations by Amnesty International and Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), an international journalistic entity, which claimed Ukraine violated its international export-control obligations by dealing in arms.

In a statement issued on its website, the Ukrainian State Service of Export Control (SSEC), said Ukraine was a member of all international export-control regimes and strictly adheres to their requirements and the relevant United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions.

“Ukraine regularly submits reports on arms exports to the UN Register of Conventional Arms and the regimes’ secretariats. Neither the member countries of the regimes nor UN members have ever accused Ukraine of not complying with its international obligations, as our state has not shipped weapons in contravention of international and national restrictions,” the statement reads in part.

The statement pointed out that it carefully analyzed the accusations and explained: “South Sudan is a member of the UN and has been recognized by Ukraine; the UN Security Council has not imposed a full and comprehensive ban on arms shipments to that country.”

“At the same time, it has been determined that Ukrinmash has not shipped any weapons to South Sudan: the State Service of Export Control has not given the relevant permits to the company in question,” it said.

“As regards the operations of the private company Techimpex, it lies within the framework of legal business: the products manufactured by that company, including those that used imported components, were shipped in 2014-2016 to Ethiopia, the UAE, Chad, and Uganda, which are not under UN or European Union restrictions,” SSEC said.

“According to international reports, other states, including European ones, have also regularly shipped weapons to these countries,” it said.

The reports are “emotional” and do not have the authority of legal judgments by international experts, and behind their groundless accusations one can see attempts “to use dirty techniques” to weaken the Ukrainian enterprises’ positions on global arms market.

The SSEC pointed out that the accusations of violating international export-control obligations have been leveled at Ukraine in the run-up to “a momentous decision by its strategic partners on providing Ukraine with defensive weapons and increasing military assistance.”

It had been reported earlier that the OCCRP accused Ukraine of involvement in a network of illegal re-exports of weapons from European Union countries to Africa and the Middle East. The Ukrainian companies Ukrinmash and Techimpex, as well as the UK-based private firm S-Profit and Poland-based Army Trade were mentioned among the entities involved in that network.

Amnesty International published a report at the beginning of this week saying that the Ukrainian state company Ukrinmash was involved in illegal shipments of firearms and artillery weapons to South Sudan through intermediaries in United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Amnesty International, in an earlier report, also claimed that in 2012 that Ukraine had illegally supplied South Sudan with tanks via Kenya in 2007-2009.

A British-based company, the advocacy body said, acted as an intermediary in huge prospective arms deals to war-torn South Sudan and other countries. The deals was reportedly facilitated by regulatory gaps, making Britain a hotspot for companies involved in illicit arms transfers.

(ST)