[CPProt.net] Ukrainian-born Israeli viewed internationally as an organized criminal syndicate and a trafficker of stolen culture artifacts

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Africa's reform efforts    by Charles Kwalonue Sunwabe, Jr.

Excerpt:

According to the United Nations, Taylor's illegitimate business ventures
included illegal diamond concessions and smuggling, political patronage and
payoffs, illicit weaponry - projectiles purchases, and diamonds for regional
diplomatic and military support schemes. Mr. Taylor's partners included
Dutch businessman Gus Kouwenhoven and other European arm smugglers. The
Dutchman is said to have transported weapons from Eastern Europe to
Monrovia, Liberia, and later into Sierra Leonean rebels' held territories.
In exchange for his services, Mr. Kouwenhoven was granted exclusive logging
rights in Liberia and in territories held by the RUF rebels of Sierra Leone.
He also provided weapons in exchange for tonnage of diamonds! In addition to
Kouwenhoven, a Ukrainian-born Israeli viewed internationally as an organized
criminal syndicate and a trafficker of stolen culture artifacts,
participated in the arms for diamonds trade with Charles Taylor. A former
colonel in the South African Army Forces who was hired to train Taylor's
death squad, the Anti Terrorist Unit, also acquired mining concessions in
Liberia on behalf of a Bermuda-based holding corporation. Charles Taylor,
his son, Chuckie Taylor, and his wife, J. Howard-Taylor were reportedly the
major shareholders in the Bermuda-based company. 

Elsewhere in Africa - notably in the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly
Zaire), the UN, western governments and NGOs have observed relentless
patterns of resource pillaging and other mineral for guns schemes. For
example, in Zaire, Dutchman Gus Kouwenhoven is said to have operated a
sinister guns for diamonds scheme similar to the ones he masterminded in
Liberia and Sierra Leone. Kenyan and Ugandan businessmen of Asian descent
have been implicated in an elusive mineral for guns scheme in eastern Zaire
as well. Presidents Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Paul Kagame of Rwanda have
both been accused by the international community of "directly fueling
Zaire's burgeoning woes". The two African leaders are said to have been
involved in the training, equipping and directing of rival ethnic militias
in DR Congo's eastern region. Some African observers have linked the two
African presidents to illicit gun running and other financial arrangements
within DR Congo's territory. In 1994, the African Development Company, a
Bermuda registered holding company of Pat Robertson entered into a diamond
and timber business with former Zairian strongman, Mobutu Sese Seko, an
autocratic African leader whose rein of cruelty, blatant theft and insanity
reached intolerable proportions in the 1990s. 


Read full report at:

http://www.odiousdebts.org/odiousdebts/index.cfm?DSP=content&ContentID=14272