Jane's Intelligence Weekly, Date Posted: 03-Nov-2011
Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout was convicted in the United States on 2 November of attempting to supply a terrorist organisation with illegal weapons.
The jury found that Bout had conspired to sell 100 Russian Igla surface-to-air missiles, 20,000 assault rifles and 10 million rounds of ammunition to insurgent group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). Bout was arrested in Thailand on 6 March 2008 while trying to set up this deal. However, the presumed FARC buyers who attended the string of meetings held in Curaçao, Copenhagen and Bucharest to arrange the deal were actually undercover agents from the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Read more: 1111 Russian arms trafficker Viktor Bout convicted in the USADate Posted: 04-Nov-2011, Jane's Defence Weekly
Libya facing disarmament challenge amid pressure to secure stockpiles
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon was in Libya on 2 November to add his voice to the international chorus of concern about the unsecured weapons stockpiles and the possibility that they could fall into insurgent hands.
As the international community focused on the arsenals of deposed leader Moammar Ghadaffi, the country's transitional government struggled to persuade the various militias and armed groups to disarm.
Ban's visit followed a resolution 2017 passed unanimously on 31 October by the UN Security Council for Libya to quickly secure the stockpiles of conventional weapons left behind by Ghadaffi's forces.
Read more: 1111 Libya stockpiles
The OSCE Mission to Moldova has been working with the Moldovan Ministry of Defence on ammunition disposal projects since 2007. The disposal of air bombs in July 2011 was the latest in a series of projects.
The disposal operations are part of the Mission’s efforts on arms control and disarmament, which also aim to promote military transparency and increase trust between the parties to the Transdniestrian conflict.
more info & pictures in the OSCE website
Huge blast kills 17 at Iran military base
Officials said the blast was an accident which happened as troops were moving munitions at a base in Bidganeh, near the town of Shahriar, some 45 km (28 miles) west of Tehran.
The explosion shook homes and rattled windows for miles around, at a time of mounting tension with Israel over Iran's nuclear programme.
OSCE decision to prevent surplus ammunition falling into wrong hands
VIENNA, 23 March 2011 – The 56 OSCE participating States today adopted a decision that aims to prevent surplus, expired or obsolete conventional ammunition from ending up in the hands of criminal or terrorist groups.
The decision, the first of its kind internationally, recommends destruction as the preferred method of disposal of such ammunition. In addition to preventing illegal trade of the ammunition, destruction also eliminates the risk of injuries or fatalities that could be caused by exploding ammunition.