Pierre Falcone's Private Indirect Government in Angola

The convictions of Pierre Falcone, Arcadi Gaydamak, ex-president's son Jean-Christophe Mitterrand and Charles Pasqua in a French court for arms trafficking to Angola have exposed the impunity with which arms traffickers supplied weapons to Angola during its 27-year civil war.

In an effort to stem the conflict, the United Nations imposed an arms embargo on both the government and the rebels.

• Both parties contravened the international decision during the second (1992-94) and third (1998-2002) periods of the civil war.
• The Angolan government employed primarily the services of Pierre Falcone and Gaydamak to procure the arms, while the main arms dealer supplying Unita rebels was the infamous Ukrainian Victor Bout, who is currently sitting in jail in Thailand.
  
  In order to understand the significance of these convictions it is important to focus on one key player, Pierre Falcone, and his relationship with the Angolan leadership.
  
  The Angolan president, José Eduardo dos Santos, publicly hailed him as a national hero. Critical newspapers dubbed him as the "vice-president of Angola" for his privileged access to the president, and for his handling of sovereign state affairs. His influence made a laughing-stock of the former Angolan prime minister Marcolino Moco, who had only two private audiences with Dos Santos during his four years in the job. It coincided with the period of arms trafficking for which Falcone has just been convicted.
  
  In 2004, for instance, Dos Santos' office called for the prosecution of Falcone to be abandoned:
  
  During a difficult moment of the recent Angolan history, Mr Pierre Falcone, by his volition and at his own risk, made funds available to the Angolan government for it to exercise its right of sovereignty, a right that was almost denied by the international community. It was, thus, decisive, at that time, the financial support from some private entities.
  
  The ideological divide of the cold war had enabled the MPLA regime to seek international military protection from Cuba and the former Soviet Union between 1975, the year of Angola's independence, and 1989. Economic liberalisation and the new world order led Dos Santos to shift, during the 1992 post-electoral civil war, to the use of private foreign intermediaries to perform sovereign responsibilities and to enable the ruling elite to enrich themselves illicitly, including the presidential family.
  
  Angola's riches sustained and prolonged the civil war. The government traded oil for weapons, while Unita paid for arms with diamonds.
• These deals fuelled the conflict and contributed to the killings of tens of thousands of Angolans, the devastation of the country's infrastructure, and helped to institutionalise corruption.
• Furthermore, the corrupt channels established by arms trade, oil and diamonds set the stage for a culture of impunity, plunder of the state assets by the ruling elite, and the "legalisation" of such criminal acts in peace time.
  
  It is in this context that Falcone has also become a key player in Angola's state contracts with China, which are worth billions of dollars. His conviction is a serious blow to Dos Santos' arrogance as an untouchable political figure. It imperils the president's form of private indirect government – a term used by the academic Achille Mbembe to describe the privatisation of sovereignty as its various functions and obligations are transferred to private operators and for private ends.
  
  
  The Rest @ The Guaridan

Guinea Bissau Presindetial Candidate Baciro Dabo and other Killed in Coupt Attemp

Angola Radio reports that Guinea Bissau had anothother Coupt attempt on Friday, 5 June, 2009 as campaigning for the 28 June election began.Baciro Dabo, Presidentail Candidate adn MP Hélder Proença were among the killed.

-Shimron Issachar

AU considers crucial holding polls on scheduled date in Guinea Bissau Luanda - The African Union (AU) considers as imperative that the presidential election in Guinea-Bissau should be held on the scheduled date as the first step for stability and resolution of the crisis in that country.

This was said to the National Radio of Angola (RNA) by the AU’s special envoy to Guinea Bissau, the Angolan Joao Bernardo de Miranda.

The AU's special envoy was speaking in the light of the deaths of Guinea-Bissau’s former minister of Territorial Administration and candidate to the presidential election, Baciro Dabo, and the MP Hélder Proença, as well as two other people, for alleged involvement in an attempted coup d'état on Friday.

João Bernardo de Miranda said that Baciro Dabo, who died Friday, had expressed his concern about security like the other candidates. The special envoy seized the opportunity to launch an appeal to the international community to analyse calmly the chance to ensure the security of the populations, candidates and institutions. To him, this election is aimed at the normalisation and stability of the institutions of the state and it is the starting point which is extremely important to add other steps, namely the dialogue among Guineans and the necessary reforms that are needed. According to João Miranda, before getting to these last two steps, it is imperative to have a Head of State, therefore it is necessary the election of the president. The AU official said that he was informed that the National Elections Council of Guinea and the Supreme Court are going to meet to advise the interim president to take a position on the holding of the poll. According to the Guinean press, it is circulating in Bissau City a list with names of political leaders to be assassinated. However, the beginning of the campaign for the June 28 presidential election, in Guinea-Bissau, was postponed, according to the chairman of the National Electoral Commission, Desire Lima da Costa, “because there are no psychological conditions, or others”. The country will hold early elections following the assassination of President "Nino" Vieira last March 02, hours after the death of the staff chief of the Armed Forces, Tagmé In Waié.

The Rest @ Angola Press

Romania Arms Fueling African war and Jihand

During the Cold war, Romania was the Ninth Largest Arms Exporter in the World.

Currently, there are nine (9) companies in Romain that produce Small arms and Light Weapons. These include Assault Rifles, grenades, grenade launchers, explosives and pistols.

A Number of Romanian Government officials have been implicate in illicit arms transfers, most coming out Otopemi Airport in Bucharest. Romanian arms have been found in Kosovo, Liberia, Rwanda, as as well as the Afghan Taliban.

Romanian arms supplied UNITA Rebels in Angola via Togo and Burkina Faso to, according to a 2004 Report.

Romania is under pressure to bring their arms dealings under control as they seek to join NATO.

The Romanian National Agency for Export Controls ( ANCEX ) licenses and regulates these exports. The Inter Ministerial Council ( IMC ) is the investigating agency, with representative from security and intelligence groups inside Romania. They meet monthly to approve or disapprove arms export permits. and there is evidence of regular infighting.

Source: Small Arms Control in Romania

Message and media traffic suggests that Romanian Arms are being sent to Somalia through Eritria. The weapons sales certificate, if checked by Romania, probably suggests that the arms are being bought by Eritria for its own use, however, the volume and frequency of the shipments show this is not true.

-Shimron Issachar

Alrosa Hunts Diamonds and Oil in Angola

ALROSA Co. Ltd. was set up under Decree 158C of the President of the Russian Federation 'On the Establishment of the Almazy Rossii-Sakha Joint Stock Company' signed on 19 February 1992. It is Russia's largest diamond company engaged in exploration, mining, manufacture and sales of diamonds and one of the world's major rough diamond producers. ALROSA accounts for about 100% of all rough diamonds produced in Russia and for about 20% of the world's rough diamond output.

• ALROSA, Sonangol (Angolan National Energy Company), and Dark Oil (an Angolan oil company) signed an agreement on prospecting and exploration for oil and gas in the Lower Congo and Upper Kwanza zones, in the basins of the Etosha, Okawango and Kassanje Rivers, and in the shelf zone of Angola.
• The agreement was signed in the Angolan capital Luanda for ALROSA by President of ALROSA Mr. Sergey Vybornov, for Sonangol by President of the Administrative Board of Sonangol Mr. Manuel Vicente, and for Dark Oil by Mr. Fragoso do Nascimento Leopoldino.

Office in Belgium
Lange Herentalsestraat 62/70,
Antwerpen B-2018 Belgium Tel: (323) 234-9084 Fax: (323) 234-2307

Office in Angola
ALROSA-Africa
Rua Coronel Aires de Ornelas, No 1,
R/S Luanda Republica de Angola Tel./Fax: (244) (2) 443900

Office in Israel ALROSA Co. Ltd. (Israel),
Diamond Exchange, Maccabi Bldg. 2342-2344
1 Jabotinsky St. Ramat-Gan 52130, Israel Tel: (972) 3 6128680/1 Fax: (972) 3 6128714

Office in England ARCOS LIMITED,
2nd Floor, 86 Hatton Garden,
London, EC1N 8QQ, UK Tel: (44)207 242 3170 Fax: (44)207 242 3174

Office in Hong Kong ARCOS HONG KONG LTD,
56 Floor, Bank of China Tower, 1 Garden Road,
Hong Kong Tel: (852)2521 9229 Fax: (852)2521 9239

Office in United Arab Emirates
ARCOS EAST DMCC, Office 19,
Business Avenue Building, Mezzanine Floor,
Port Saeed Road, Deira, Dubai Tel: (971) 4 295 4692 Fax: (971) 4 295 4691