By Ivelina Puhaleva
Names of Bulgarian companies alleged in illegal arms trading in violation of embargo to countries declared sponsors of terrorisms have previously appeared as well in official statements of US Department.
KAS Engineering Limited was allegedly involved in the 1995 Purulia arms scandal.
In 1998, the British mercenary company Sandline was accused of funneling Bulgarian arms to fighters in West Africa, causing acute embarrassment for the then-fresh Blair government. The next year, Bulgarian tanks were sold to Uganda, in contravention of the stated policy of "restraint" in export, and in 1999 warring Ethiopia and Eritrea were involved in "...frantically buying Bulgarian weapons."
Arms dealer Viktor Bout's name is regularly linked with Bulgaria in connection with the deals he makes with Bulgaria-manufactured weapons. There was significant space devoted to Victor Bout in the 2000 UN Security Council report in connection with suspicions that he had supplied weapons for the Angolan grouping UNITA instead of for the officially declared end client - Togo. In the same report, Bulgaria was accused that it did not adhere to UN-imposed embargo resolutions.
Later, when the alleged arms embargo violator Beta JSC from Bulgaria was striped off its license May 2000, the country was exonerated of these allegations. The investigation, however, showed that counterfeit documents were used, which declared an end client. These documents were made from original copies of a legal arms shipment to Togo.
KAS Engineering Consortium Ltd. (KAS) is the company with which Viktor Bout did do regularly business in Bulgaria. According to data from the Bulgarian special services, an Il-76 airplane, owned by Air Cess, allegedly owned by Victor Bout, took off on January 1, 1998 from the coastal city of Burgas to Lome in Togo, loaded with special production.
A major scandal emerged 10 days before Bulgaria's November 21, 2002 NATO invitation ceremony, and which also involved Iraq and an American company:
"...on Oct. 20 [2002] in Syria, CIA agents intercepted a shipment of Bulgarian-made tractor components that had a possible dual use as spare parts for armored personnel carriers. The trucks transporting the equipment were allegedly poised to cross from Syria to Iraq. The dual-use shipment was described in documents as an export of civilian goods, with a Syrian company named as the ultimate recipient. The producer was the Targovishte branch of the state-owned Terem ordnance and military repairs factory, and the export intermediary was Rodeos Investment, a company registered in Washington D.C."
Another article of November 2002 linked legendary Russian black market arms dealers Leonide Ephimovic Minin and Victor Bout in a 1997 Bulgarian arms deal that unwittingly involved the US government. The US has declared Bout "...the world's number one arms-dealer. Following September 11, he is also believed to be Al Qaeda's top source of arms."
What is known about Victor Bout for sure is that he used to live in the United Arab Emirates and is among the most prominent arms suppliers for Africa and Asia. He is also suspected to be a former KGB officer (Russia's former Security Services).
A Bulgaria-registered company owned by Victor Bout - Hubeno EOOD - was deprived of its license in November 2003. KAS Engineering Consortium/BMG-M has applied for an arms trading license, but was denied it, Bulgarian authorities said.
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