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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

Ukraine Did Not Sell Tanks To Uganda

29 December, 1998 - 00:00

For the past three years Ukraine has not supplied any armaments
to Uganda. Kyiv officialdom in this line of business finally mustered the
courage to refute a series of publications carried by Uganda's government
newspaper, New Vision, several weeks ago.

Ukraine was alleged to have supplied a shipment of T-55 tanks worth
$28 billion, yet only 8 of almost 60 armored vehicles delivered turned
out operational. This caused a scandal in Uganda, with the opposition accusing
the government of spending so much on defective goods.

"We could not afford to have Ukraine's image smeared as a reliable and
fair business partner in the sphere of military-technical cooperation,
let alone supply defective goods," Valery Hubenko, head of the State Export
Control Service, told The Day and added that no business entity
in Ukraine has had anything to do with recent arms supplies to Uganda.
The latest such shipment dates back to 1995 when the situation was normal
in that country. The current status of the region is very complicated,
so Ukraine is careful to adhere to the Wassenaar accords banning arms deliveries
to hotbeds across the world.

It should be remembered, however, that the Wassenaar accords are very
like a gentleman's agreement, envisaging no specific sanctions against
transgressors, which makes the instrument a very good asset in "able" hands,
in this case at clumsy Ukraine's expense - at least this is what Mr. Hubenko's
statement amounted to. He admitted that in September 1998 an export company
in a neighboring country (not Russia) received permission from the Ukrainian
State Export Control Service to transmit a shipment of T-50 tanks and spare
parts to Uganda. Accordingly, Ukraine allowed its transit via its territory
and the reloading was done at the Oktiabrsk Port in Mykolayiv. Mr. Hubenko
further stated that "Ukraine cannot be held liable for any possible deviations
from the stated transit route beyond Ukraine's borders." This statement
could be interpreted as a hint at the shipment ending in the hands of an
entity other than that stated in the documents presented to Kyiv. So who
was the shipper? The State Export Control Service had no comment.

Ukrspetseksport, Ukraine's official arms dealer, says that two rather
sizable contracts on arms supplies to the African continent are being hammered
out. Kyiv is actually making the first tentative steps in this region which
looks quite promising for the Ukrainian defense establishment, considering
that Africa is accustomed to arms supplies from Eastern Europe, particularly
from ex-Soviet contractors. However, recent allegations about defective
Ukrainian shipments to Uganda are slowing the contractual process which
is, of course, very detrimental to the Ukrainian side and very much to
the advantage of Kyiv's rivals on the weapons market. Be it as it may,
the only logical conclusion from all this is that a country wishing to
profit from arms supplies must not only manufacture quality, competitive
goods, but also learn how to win information campaigns.

 

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