Nyt 061210
I prezzi delle armi al mercato nero nel caos
iracheno
C. J. CHIVERS
–
I prezzi delle armi crescono assieme all’espandersi della
Guerra tra le fazioni, e riflettono la discesa dell’Irak nel caos.
–
L’aumento dei prezzi ha incoraggiato il furto delle armi dalle
armerie di forze armate e polizia contrabbandate sul mercato nero. Nel Sud Irak
quando gli americani trasferiscono armi agli iracheni, il giorno seguente
finiscono sul mercato: esercito e polizia le vendono subito; «Quasi tutte le
armi provengono da polizia e forze armate irachene. Sono i nostri migliori
fornitori», dichiara un mercante d’armi.
–
Tre tipi di armi sono in tutti i negozi e bazar: le pistole
americane 9 mm. Glock (facili da reperire, costavano $900 l’anno scorso a
Kirkuk) e Walther P99 (anch’esse facili da reperire), e i Kalashnikov dei paesi
dell’Est Europa.
–
Non è facile risalire alle unità irachene che le vendono
perché gli americani non hanno registrato i numeri di serie di quasi tutte le
370 000 piccole armi acquistate per le forze di sicurezza irachene,
secondo il rapporto dell’Ispettore speciale per la ricostruzione irachena, americano.
–
Le armi sono state pagate $133mn. dall’Iraq Relief and
Reconstruction Fund (Fondo per il sostegno e la ricostruzione iracheno), e tra
queste vi erano almeno 138 00 pistole Glock, e 165 000 fucili
d’attacco Kalshnikov, non ancora usati.
–
Il contrabbando delle armi americane è stato riconosciuto
anche dal Luogotenente generale Martin E. Dempsey, capo del comando iracheno di
transizione della sicurezza multinazionale.
–
L’Ispettore generale stima che il 4%, pari a circa 14 000
armi, sono state perse tra l’arrivo in Irak e il loro trasferimento alle forze irachene, una stima che non
comprende le armi rubate o perse dopo essere state trasferite, che i mercanti
dichiarano esesre la loro maggior fonte di rifornimento.
–
Tra le cause del trasferimento delle armi sul mercato nero:
o attacchi
di ribelli,
o defezioni
o dimissioni di poliziotti e soldati iracheni,
o soldati
e ufficiali che vanno in congedo, le armi valgono diversi mesi di paga.
–
Il prezzo
dei Kalashnikov è emblematico dell’andamento del mercato delle armi. Nel
2003 a secondo del modello andava dai $75 ai $150, oggi costano $210-650, e
fino a $800 in alcune aree. Quello in mano a Bin Laden costa fino a $2000. Il
costo dipende anche dal luogo di fabbricazione, costano di più quelli
provenienti dal blocco sovietico e meno quelli da Cina, Nord Corea e Irak.
–
I prezzi sono iniziati a salire nell’estate 2003, raggiungendo
velocemente i $200, con l’entrata nel mercato di diversi tipi di clienti:
mercenari occidentali, gruppi di ribelli sunniti, unità paramilitari sciite e
criminali scarcerati da Saddam prima della guerra.
–
Hanno ripreso alla fine del 2005 con l’allargamento della
guerra tra fazioni; con l’aumento delle milizie sono aumentati anche i civili
alla ricerca di armi per l’autodifesa, due pressioni contemporanee nella
domanda che lo scorso autunno hanno portato a nuovi record i prezzi.
–
Dal 2003 i prezzi delle pistole si sono moltiplicati quasi per
3, le 9 mm. costano $110-1800 nei bazar; i fucili Sniper $1100-2000, contro i
$400-600 in Occidente.
–
Il più recente mercato nero segue il vecchio modello dei tempi
di Saddam, quando gli ufficiali dell’esercito iracheno vendevano armi ai
contrabbandieri, il che ha permesso ai guerriglieri curdi di rifornirsi.
Ora le
cose si sono semplificate per i contrabbandieri perché spesso le unità delle
forze armate non hanno inventari.
Nyt 061210
Black-Market Weapon Prices Surge in Iraq Chaos
By C. J.
CHIVERS
SULAIMANIYA, Iraq, Dec. 8 — The Kurdish
security contractor placed the black plastic box on the table. Inside was a new
Glock 19, one of the
9-millimeter pistols that the United States issued by the tens of thousands to
the Iraqi Army and police.
This pistol was no longer in the custody of
the Iraqi Army or police. It had been stolen or sold, and it found its way to an open-air grocery
stand that does a lively black-market business in police and infantry arms. The
contractor bought it there.
He displayed other purchases, including a
short-barreled Kalashnikov assault rifle with a collapsible stock that makes it
easy to conceal under a coat or fire from a car. “I bought this for $450 last
year,” he said of the rifle. “Now it costs $650. The prices keep going up.”
– The market for this American-issued pistol and the ubiquitous
assault rifle illustrated how fear, mismanagement and malfeasance are shaping
the small-arms market in Iraq.
– Weapon prices are
soaring along with an expanding sectarian war, as more buyers push prices several
times higher than those that existed at the time of the American-led invasion nearly
four years ago. Rising prices, in turn, have
encouraged an insidious
form of Iraqi corruption — the migration of army and police weapons from Iraqi
state armories to black-market sales.
All
manner of infantry arms, from rocket-propelled grenade launchers to weathered
and dented Kalashnikovs, have circulated within Iraq for decades.
– But three types
of American-issued weapons are now readily visible in shops and bazaars
here as well: Glock and Walther 9-millimeter pistols, and pristine, unused
Kalashnikovs from post-Soviet Eastern European countries. These are three of the principal
types of the 370,000 weapons purchased by the United States for Iraq’s security
forces, a program that was criticized by a special inspector general
this fall for, among other things, failing to properly account for the arms.
The weapons are easy to find, resting among
others in the semihidden street markets here, where weapons are sold in tea
houses, the back rooms of grocery kiosks, cosmetics stores and rug shops, or
from the trunks of cars. Proprietors show samples for immediate purchase and
offer to take orders — 10 guns can be had in two hours, they say, and 100 or
more the next day.
“Every
type of gun that the Americans give comes to the market,”
said Brig. Hassan Nouri, chief of the political investigations bureau for the
Sulaimaniya district. “They
go from the U.S. Army to the Iraqi Army to the smugglers. I have captured many
of these guns that the terrorists bought.”
The forces propelling the trade can be seen
in the price fluctuations of the country’s most abundant firearm, the
Kalashnikov.
– In early 2003, a
Kalashnikov in northern Iraq typically cost from $75 to $150, depending on its condition, origin and style. Immediately after
the invasion, as fleeing soldiers abandoned their rifles and armories were
looted, prices fell, pushed down by a glut and a brief sense of optimism.
– Today, the same
weapons typically cost $210 to $650, according to
interviews with seven arms dealers, two senior Kurdish security officials and
several customers. In other areas of Iraq, prices have climbed as high as $800,
according to Phillip Killicoat, a researcher who has been assembling data on
Kalashnikov prices worldwide for the Small Arms Survey, a Geneva-based
organization.
The price ranges reflect not only a weapon’s
condition but its model. A
Kalashnikov made in a former Soviet-bloc factory costs more than a Kalashnikov
made in China, North Korea or Iraq. Collapsible-stock models have become
disproportionately expensive. The price ranges do not include the most compact
Kalashnikovs, like those Osama bin Laden has been photographed with, which now have a collector’s
value in Iraq and can cost as much as $2,000.
–
In many ways, weapon prices provide a condensed history
of Iraq’s slide into chaos.
– Prices began moving
upward in the summer of 2003 as several classes of customers entered the market
together, Iraqi security officials and the arms dealers
said. Western security
contractors, Sunni insurgent groups, Shiite paramilitary units and criminals
who were released from prison by Saddam Hussein before the war all sought the
same weapons at once.
– Kalashnikov prices
quickly reached $200, they said. Since late last year, prices have been moving
up again, as sectarian war has spread. Militias have been growing at
the same time that more civilians have been seeking weapons for self-defense —
twin demand pressures that pushed prices to new heights this fall.
“Now the Sunni want the weapons because they
fear the Shia, and the Shia want the weapons because they fear the Sunni,” said
Brig. Sarkawt Hassan Jalal, the chief of security in the Sulaimaniya district.
“So prices go up.”
Mr. Killicoat put it another way. “When
households start entering the market, that’s a free-for-all,” he said.
– The surge is evident across a spectrum of arms. Pistol prices have nearly
tripled since 2003. Western 9-millimeter pistols now sell for $1,100 to $1,800
in the bazaars of this city. Sniper rifles cost $1,100 to $2,000, the
dealers said. In the West, similar pistols sell for $400 to $600.
Arms dealers say that rising prices have led
to more extensive
pilfering from state armories, including the widespread theft of weapons the
United States had issued to Iraq’s police officers and soldiers.
“In the south, if the Americans give the
Iraqis weapons, the next day you can buy them here,” said one dealer, who sold
groceries in the front of his kiosk and offered weapons in the back. “The Iraqi Army, the Iraqi
police — they all sell them right away.”
No weapons were displayed when two visitors
arrived. But when asked, the owner and a friend swiftly retrieved six pistols,
a rocket-propelled grenade launcher and three Kalashnikovs from a car and
another room.
The rifles and the grenade launcher were wrapped
in rice sacks. He slipped two of the rifles out of the cloth. They were
spotless and unworn, inside and out, and appeared never to have been used. They
had folding stocks and were priced at $560 each.
The dealer said they had recently been taken
from an Iraqi armoury.
“Almost all of the weapons come from the Iraqi police and army,” he said. “They
are our best suppliers.”
One pistol was a new Walther P99, a 9-millimeter pistol that the
dealer said had been issued by the Americans to the Iraqi police. It was still
in its box.
Glock
pistols were also easy to find. One young Iraqi man,
Rebwar Mustafa, showed a Glock 19 he had bought at the bazaar in Kirkuk last year for $900.
Five of his friends have bought identical models, he said.
When asked if he was surprised that the Iraqi
police and soldiers sold their own guns, he scoffed.
“Everything goes to the bazaar,” he said.
He added: “It is not only pistols. A lot of
police cars are being sold. The smugglers brought us three cars and asked if we
wanted to buy them. Their doors were still blue, and police labels were on
them. The lights were still on top.”
Although the scale of weapons sales is
unmistakably large, it is impossible to measure precisely. Sales are almost
always hidden and unrecorded.
– Tracing American-issued weapons back to Iraqi units that sell them
is especially difficult because the United States did not register serial numbers for almost all of the
370,000 small arms purchased for Iraqi security forces, according to a report
by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.
– The weapons
were paid for with $133 million from the Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund.
Among them were at least
138,000 new Glock pistols and at least 165,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles
that had not previously been used, according to the report.
Lt.
Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, commander of the Multi-National Security Transition
Command-Iraq, agreed that weapons provided by the United States had slipped
from custody.
“I certainly concede that there are weapons
that have been lost, stolen and misappropriated,” General Dempsey said.
– He noted that the inspector
general had estimated that 4 percent, or about 14,000 weapons, were lost between
arriving in Iraq and being transferred to Iraqi forces. Most of the
weapons were pistols.
The general said that he thought the estimate
was high and that accountability was improving. A weapons registry was being
created, he said. “Serial numbers are being registered,” he said.
– But the estimate
of a 4 percent loss did not include weapons that were lost or stolen after
being issued to Iraqi units. The arms dealers said this was the main source of their goods.
The arms dealers described several factors that kept weapons flowing
from state custody.
Some have been taken by insurgents in ambushes or raids.
Defections and
resignations have also been common in Iraqi police and army units, they
said, and often departing
soldiers and officers leave with their weapons, which are worth more than several
months of pay.
Aaron Karp, a small-arms researcher at Old
Dominion University, said Iraq
resembled African countries that had had extraordinary difficulties with the
police selling off their guns. “The gun becomes the most valuable thing
in the household,” he said.
“If anything happens to a police officer’s
family and he needs money, he walks into work the next day and says, ‘Hey, my
gun got stolen.’ ”
Another weapons dealer, who Kurdish officials
said had been providing them with weapons since 1991, said the latest black-market sales followed an
old pattern precisely.
Throughout Mr. Hussein’s rule, Iraqi Army
officers were in the arms trade, he said, selling weapons to smugglers. This
was how the Kurdish guerrillas kept themselves supplied.
Now, he said, the smugglers remain in
business, and their trade is made easier because the units often do not have
inventories. “I am surprised sometimes by the numbers,” he said. “Sometimes
they come by the hundreds.”
James Glanz contributed reporting from
Baghdad.
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