Explosion Norway

[Jan Klimkowski]

Peter - many thanks. Please keep us posted.

Meanwhile, I've been trying to identify the "Serbian Crusader General" that Breivik claims to have met in Monrovia, Liberia, circa 2002.

I've linked the pdf of a 2003 UN Security Council document about the brutal war in Liberia, here. Note it's a very large document.

A group of Serbian "businessmen" are accused of trafficking weapons to Monrovia in 2002.

The significance of this is that it provides some corroborating evidence for a Serbian military black market/warlord presence in Monrovia in 2002.

I am not suggesting that the individuals named below are Breivik's "Serbian Crusader General". However, the presence of such Serbian gun running elements in Monrovia in 2002 is provocative.

Excerpts from Security Council document:

Hotel registration of Slobodan Tešic, Director of Temex, Mr. Dragaš and Mr. Jovan at the
Royal Hotel, Monrovia, on 1 August 2002 . .

5. Weapons. President Taylor in March openly declared that Liberia would
import weapons for self-defence and the Government has provided the Panel with a
list of weapons it has procured. In its analysis the Panel concludes that these
weapons were obtained in Serbia in 2002 from the arms manufacturer Zastava using
a false Nigerian end-user certificate. The Panel suspects that preparations are
ongoing for trans-shipments of 50 tons of Serbian military equipment from Belgrade
to Liberia via Kinshasa, using an end-user certificate from the Democratic Republic
of the Congo. Cases of false declaration of goods, fake flight plans for aircraft
routing and use of unregistered aircraft have been detected. The Panel during its
investigation obtained a false Guinean end-user certificate from Belarus and
established that an Ivorian end-user certificate in its possession was fake. The Panel
also obtained two credible accounts of recent shipments and unloading of weapons
at the ports of Buchanan and Harper.

Many Serbian weapons in Liberia
71. The Panel independently verified that all the weapons listed in table 1,
including 5,000 M70 AB2 (7.62x39 mm) automatic rifles, were delivered to Liberia
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in six shipments, from June to August 2002. The weapons were distributed rapidly
throughout Liberia and the Panel observed them in the possession of Government
troops in upper Lofa County and Monrovia and in the possession of LURD
non-State actors at Bo-Waterside and Tubmanburg (these were captured from the
Government). A photograph taken by the Panel of the serial number 2002 M70 AB2
799718 from one of these weapons is in annex IV. The Panel also examined two
AFL weapon inventories for Bo-Waterside and Robertsport dated 8 July 2002 and
16 October 2002. The serial numbers for 13 M70 automatic rifles were listed.
72. From its examination of weapons and inventories the Panel recorded a total of
66 serial numbers of M70 automatic rifles from Liberia and provided these to the
Ministry of Defence in Belgrade. The Serbian authorities confirmed that all of those
weapons were manufactured by the Serbian company Zastava in 2001 and 2002 and
that the numbers matched the batch numbers of weapons that the Temex officials
had claimed were destined for the Ministry of Defence in Nigeria.
73. Subsequently the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria in a letter dated 28
November 2002 to the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in Lagos
emphasized that "End-user certificates purportedly issued by the Nigerian
Government for the purchase of arms and ammunition from a Yugoslav company are
not, repeat not, genuine documents" (see S/2002/1115, annex V).
C. Slobodan Tešic and Temex
74. The Panel further corroborated evidence for the role of Slobodan Tešic (or
Tezic) as the chief sanctions buster, including evidence for three visits to Monrovia.
Substantial evidence was secured both in West Africa and in Serbia that weapons
manufactured in 2001 and 2002 were sold to Liberia by Mr. Tešic through his Temex
company. Information gathered by the Panel justifies the suspicion that Mr. Tešic
and newly identified partners to this day are scheming to export Serbianmanufactured
arms to Liberia.
75. Mr. Tešic maintained that he had been introduced to a Mr. Ebenezer of a
Nigerian company called Aruna Import by a Serbian business partner, Orhan
Dragaš, and that all arrangements were made by the client and the freight
forwarding agent Interjug AS. Mr. Tešic denied that he had ever visited Liberia and
said that he believed the weapons to be for Nigeria.
D. Slobodan Tešic in Monrovia
76. During its recent investigation the Panel established that the names of Mr. Tešic
and Mr. Dragaš were entered in the register of the Royal Hotel in Monrovia for 1
August 2002 (see annex V.). Aleksic Jovan of the Serbian company Aviogenex
accompanied them. The Panel obtained a copy of Mr. Dragaš's passport from
Belgrade and matched its number with that entered in the hotel registry in Monrovia.
77. The Panel further established that Mr. Tešic, Mr. Jovan and Mr. Dragaš
travelled to Liberia on a charter flight. According to eyewitnesses they carried with
them various gifts including computers and bulletproof vests and were met by
Emmanuel Shaw, the Managing Director of LoneStar Airways. This was the second
visit that Mr. Tešic made to Monrovia.
78. The Panel found bookings from 9 to 12 July 2002 at the Mamba Point Hotel in
Monrovia for Aleksic Jovan and two other individuals (rooms 38, 39 and 40), one of
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whom was Mr. Tešic and the other Mr. Dragaš (the Panel photographed this entry, the
original of which has been deposited on file with the United Nations Secretariat). Mr.
Jovan booked the rooms on behalf of the "Lone Star Airline Company". The Panel
confirmed that Mr. Tešic and Mr. Jovan stayed at the Mamba Point. It also confirmed
that the Managing Director of LoneStar Airways, Mr. Shaw, arranged during their stay
in Monrovia for a visit to the Liberian Produce Marketing Corporation.
79. Soon after the return of these men to Belgrade from Monrovia on 16 July 2002,
the Yugoslav authorities temporarily stopped the fifth consignment of military
equipment organized by Temex. It took another month for Interjug AS to charter a
new aircraft. During this period Aviogenex lobbied the Federal Yugoslav Civil
Aviation Authority to permit a Tripoli-based company, Buraq Air, to fly the cargo on
its Ilyushin 76 aircraft. Unease on the part of the Yugoslav authorities about the
involvement of a Tripoli-linked company in the transportation of weapons eventually
resulted in the chartering of a Lockheed aircraft from Ducor World Airlines. A crew
member of the Lockheed told the Panel that a man fitting the description of Mr. Tešic
flew with them. According to the Chief Executive Officer of Ducor, Duane Egli, his
crew were threatened with physical harm at Belgrade Airport and forced to fly to
Liberia. "This is the only time in my many years of flying that this has happened", he
told the Panel when it interviewed him in his office at Ostende Airport (Belgium).
E. Payments for the weapons
80. Mr. Tešic claimed that he received $500,000 in cash from Mr. Ebenezer of
Aruna Import Company, Nigeria, during an encounter at the border town of
Sobotitya in Serbia in the first quarter of 2002. He also stated that this money was
deposited in a Belgrade bank account by one of his employees. An investigation by
the Serbian authorities of the flow of money generated by the six arms shipments
revealed that Mr. Tešic received a number of bank transfers and cash deposits to
bank accounts which are either in Mr. Tešic's name or over which he maintains
indirect control (see table 2).
Table 2
Bank transfers and cash deposits in favour of Slobodan Tešic
(United States dollars)
Transaction Account number
90 000.00 into Komercijalna Banka AD, Belgrade 4533-0-69398
78 615.37 into Delta Banka AD, Belgrade 743509665
198 384.63 into Delta Banka AD, Belgrade 743509664
23 785.05 into Delta Banka AD, Belgrade 743509737
253 514.95 into Delta Banka AD, Belgrade 743509738
8.30 into Delta Banka AD, Belgrade 743144493
186 867.50 into Delta Banka AD, Belgrade 743144493
28 026.88 into Delta Banka AD, Belgrade 743144495
81. The deposits of $90,000 and $198,384.63 were initiated by someone
purporting to be a representative of the Finding Investment Company, Monrovia.
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82. The total of these payments is $859,202.68 while the value of the exported
weapons as evidenced by Temex is $1,313,870.22 (see table 3). The Serbian Police
has no information on how the difference of $454,667.54 was collected by Mr. Tešic.
83. For further corroboration, the Serbian Police provided the Panel with a
summary of the invoices per shipment.
Table 3
Summary of invoices per weapons shipment
(United States dollars)
First shipment 168 615.37
Second shipment 222 169.68
Third shipment 253 523.25
Fourth shipment 161 480.00 Plus 25 387.50
Fifth shipment 310 675.00 Plus 1 520.00 plus 45 028.61
Sixth shipment 40 907.00 Plus 84 563.21
84. The Serbian Economic Crime Police assume that the actual value of the arms
sold may be significantly higher and that Mr. Tešic may have underreported his
profits. Mr. Tešic, on the other hand, testified that the sales price of the shipped
arms was $975,000, of which he received only $500,000.
85. Whichever version one wants to believe, it is certain that some money did not
reach Mr. Tešic's Serbian bank accounts. A possible motivation may be recent
changes in Serbian money-laundering legislation. In his attempt to appear compliant
with Serbian law, Mr. Tešic had to make sure that the value of the weapons he
alleged to export to Nigeria was reflected in the incoming money flows. Mr. Tešic
had to hide whatever surplus money he had been able to earn for his sanctionsbusting
efforts. For this purpose he may have devised an elaborate scheme involving
Waxom and Swiss bank accounts (see box).
86. A payment of $250,000 which was transferred on 9 May 2002 to a UBS
Switzerland account owned by the principals of Waxom Anstalt may be part of the
solution to the search for additional proceeds resulting from the six Liberian
shipments. The Lebanese Al Marwarid Bank transferred the money from account
No. 0001-202662-CC1 to Switzerland without identifying the beneficial owner of
the account. A confidential informant involved in this transaction stated that these
funds were transferred on behalf of Jeff Corporation.
87. A few days after the $250,000 had been credited to the Waxom account,
Mr. Tešic ordered transfers of $5,000, $100,000 and $45,000 to three different
accounts of individuals probably not connected with the embargo violations. An
additional amount of $90,000 was transmitted to a Serbian account belonging to
Mr. Tešic (see table 2).
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The Waxom-Temex-Jeff connection
When the Panel investigated in 2002 the six Temex shipments to Liberia
it was told that the facilitator company Waxom Anstalt did not exist.
With the help of the authorities of Liechtenstein the Panel has been able
to locate Waxom Anstalt and extend the investigation further.
Waxom Anstalt was registered in Vaduz on 3 April 2002 as an accounting
and billing affiliate of a Serbian trading company. The principals of both
the Liechtenstein company and the Serbian trading enterprises appear to
have been drawn innocently into the Liberian sanction violations
orchestrated by Slobodan Tešic and Temex. Some information indicates
that these activities may also be connected with sanctions-busting by Iraq.
Through Waxom Anstalt, Mr. Tešic used the Liechtenstein firm and its
associated Swiss bank accounts for a joint venture deal with a Bulgarian
national, Petar Kostadinov Sinapov, and his Jeff Corporation. Mr. Sinapov
has since 11 November 2002 been sought by Interpol because of his
alleged involvement in the illegal shipment of reductor parts to Iraq. He is
currently also under investigation by the Bulgarian law enforcement
authorities. According to Bulgarian authorities, Mr. Sinapov is 100 per cent
in control of the British Virgin Islands-registered Jeff Corporation and a
Cyprus-registered subsidiary of the same name.
Although there is no registration for Jeff Corporation Ltd. in Bulgaria,
Mr. Sinapov maintains a Bulgarian address at 44-48 Kritchim Str., Sofia.
He entered into an agreement with Temex Co. in March 2002 for the sale
of truck tyres valued at $590,290 (see annex VI). For reasons one can
only suspect, Mr. Tešic chose to appoint the principals of Waxom as
representatives for the transaction with Jeff Corporation and signed an
agency contract which entrusts a Liechtenstein-based fiduciary as a
record keeper and acting agent. Neither the extraordinary secrecy nor the
added expense resulting from the services of the Liechtenstein fiduciary
justifies a simple $590,000 tyre deal. The prosecutor of Liechtenstein has
opened an investigation into this matter and has already confiscated all
the relevant documents.
Although the Panel has not found solid evidence for a linkage between
the Temex-Jeff contract with the Liberian arms shipments, there is the
incontrovertible evidence already presented in the previous report of the
Panel (S/2002/1115, para. 75) that, acting as a representative of the
Ministry of Defence of Nigeria (the alleged buyer), the original Liberianregistered
Finding Investment Company was replaced by Waxom Co., the
corporate box in which the Temex-Jeff contract is hidden.
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F. The Serbian connection continues
88. On behalf of LoneStar Airways Mr. Shaw signed in February 2003 a lease
agreement with the Belgrade-based Aviogenex for a Boeing 727-200, on the Serbian
register (YU-AKD). The "Pepper Bird" as this plane is locally called, will be joined
by a second Boeing 727-200 from Aviogenex (registration YU-AKM) in the near
future.
89. Mr. Shaw is the managing director of LoneStar Airways and an economic
adviser to President Taylor. The Panel attempted to talk to him about his
involvement with Aviogenex and Temex, making countless telephone calls, visits to
his offices and finally submitting a detailed letter of questions. To date there has
been no reply. The President of LoneStar Airways is Benoni Urey, Commissioner of
Maritime Affairs, who was documented by the Panel as a key player in diverting
funds from the Liberia Ship and Corporate Registry (LISCR) to fund procurement
and transportation of weapons in violation of United Nations sanctions (see
S/2001/1015).
90. Table 4 shows how the LoneStar call sign was used in November and
December 2002 and February 2003 for flights from Burkina Faso to Liberia on
which military supplies were suspected. The LoneStar Airways and Aviogenex joint
venture for two Boeing 727-200 aircraft would provide the Government of Liberia
with an enhanced domestic capacity for transportation of weapons in violation of
United Nations sanctions. The range and capacity of these aircraft are ideal for rapid
shipment of light weapons and ammunition and these aircraft could have dual use as
revenue generator with passenger traffic and arms transporter when necessary.