Criminals with military arms of war

Brutal attacks in Marseille

Three fatal shootings within a week: The region around Marseille is terrorized by heavily armed gangsters. The authorities are powerless, while the criminals continually upgraded. "The Kalashnikov is as normal as a pocket knife," said a policeman.
 
There is already talk of a "black series", a series of crimes that shocked all over France. All happened in Marseilles, the port city in the south of the country. There are now three shootings, which occurred on Thursday last: In a diner in Saint-Antoine, 15 District of the port was opened, a man fire from a Kalashnikov automatic rifle of the type. While one person was killed and another seriously injured. The offender recklessly slammed around, at least thirty bullet casings were found at the scene.

The circumstances and motives are still unclear, it could have been a settlement in the milieu. The brutality and cold-bloodedness of the shooting has shocked France, however. For four days earlier, on the night of Monday last, was it came in the department of Bouches-du-Rhône to a heavy exchange of fire with armed gangsters.
After several break-ins, the officers of a special unit around 2.30am clock in the industrial district of Vitrolles north of Marseille were on the road when she suddenly drive the criminals faced: the opened immediately and specifically the fire, a 37-year-old police officer was on life-threatening head made.

The same day came another ruthless attack, when three men in the north of Marseille in a hardware store the 13 District appeared. A policeman in civilian clothes who said there was just shopping, the four individuals and alerted his colleagues, a few minutes later they were on site.
One of the attackers, disguised by a hood and armed with a Kalashnikov, immediately opened fire. In the subsequent exchange of fire he was killed and another injured. The other two criminals were able to escape, injuring a policeman, but were caught a little later. With them were found, the security forces, a "veritable arsenal" includes two rapid-fire guns of the Russian type, and a Beretta pistol.

New such crimes in Marseille and the surrounding area are not. In France's second largest city, once notorious as the gateway of the European drug market, there had been in the past few years, attacks relentlessly active offenders. And public security forces, however, whether the recent spate of incidents of concern, especially since it seems that automatic military arms like the AK-47 were used increasingly common.

Cheap guns are readily available on the black market

Just last year, local authorities have had about the "banality in the use of assault rifles" expressed concern. War military arms were used more frequently in the criminal fraternity - in raids against security forces, or even in internal operating accounts of mafia gangs. One reason for the upgrade: Automatic military arms such as Kalashnikovs are cheaper and are always on the black market, even for petty criminals readily available.

"The Kalashnikov is in Marseille as normal as a pocket knife," says David-Olivier Reverdy. For a handful of euros, told the local newspaper "Le Provence" the regional representatives of the police union Alliance, such military equipment was available. An assault rifle you get today for 1000 € or even half if you do not put so much emphasis on quality.

The military arms come mostly from Eastern European countries looted barracks and arsenals, experts believe. Sometimes they are stolen for the "western underground market" even to order. "In the consciousness of the offender makes a Kalashnikov-powerful," says the detective, a policeman - with bursts of thirty bullets you can hardly miss its target.

Scarce resources in times of crisis

Jean-Louis Martini, representatives of the police union Synergie in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur sees but also errors in the security agencies, because in times of crisis are just the means. "Because of the budget, we have no bullets, so the training will also be no more," he told the radio station RMC. "In addition, the police are reluctant to resort to a military arm, possibly because their career depends on it - that's why such tragedies happen and I'm afraid that it will happen more often.."

Interior Minister Claude Guéant, who visited the wounded in a hospital officials promised, however, "to do everything we can to catch the perpetrators." Dominique Moyal of the prosecutor's office in Aix-en-Provence, described the way how the gangsters had reacted, an act of war.
For law enforcement, justice and politics, it goes about its own credibility: The protection of citizens against violence and crime is one of the favorite themes of President Nicolas Sarkozy. He had only recently sent a close confidant as the new prefect of Marseille.

Marseille for more than just a good reputation is at stake: The port city will act as European Capital of Culture 2013, shootings do not fit the program.

Peacekeepers as arms dealers

UN peacekeepers in Congo are said to have sold weapons and ammunition
to rebels. In return for this they should have received gold and
ivory.

Soldiers of the UN peacekeeping troops in Congo have sold information
to the British broadcaster BBC weapons and ammunition to rebels in
eastern Congo. For the weapons were the peacekeepers from India and
Pakistan, gold and ivory, such as the BBC reported. The United Nations
had established in the fall, but made ​​no official charges to
Pakistan and India not to annoy as important sending countries of UN
peacekeepers. Officially it was called, there is insufficient evidence
had been available.

"It's true, they gave us weapons," said the jailed rebel leader Mateso
Ninga. "They said it was for the security of the country." According
to the BBC report made ​​some of the peacekeepers, arms deals with
Hutu militias, which participation is accused of genocide against the
Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994. For smuggling of ivory for weapons is also a
UN helicopter was used, the report said. BBC claims to have conducted
its own investigation for 18 months and seen confidential documents
relating to an internal investigation by the UN.

The UN Mission in Congo (MONUC) has deployed 17,000 troops. It is
currently the largest in the world. Fighting in eastern Congo despite
a peace agreement Tutsi rebels against government troops and Hutu
militias. All parties to the conflict are accused of serious human
rights violations.

US remains the world's biggest military arms dealer

Despite recession-related decline in sales - Italy in second place

Washington - The United States has expanded despite a
recession-induced decline in global arms sales, according to a study
by the U.S. Congress in 2008 its top position as the largest arms
dealer on. As the "New York Times" (Sunday on the Internet), reported
to the U.S. accounted for 68.4 percent of the global arms trade. The
signed weapons contracts with the U.S. had had a value of 37.8 billion
dollars (26.4 billion euros). 2007, there were $ 25.4 billion.

The increase was due not only to large orders from new customers in
the Middle East and Asia but also to the ongoing global demand for
U.S. arms, it said.

Second place in the global arms trade have held Italy with 3.7
billion dollars. Russia is in third place with $ 3.5 billion. In 2007,
there were still $ 10.8 billion for Moscow. Worldwide arms deals worth
$ 55.2 billion had been settled. That would mean a decline of 7.6
percent compared to 2007, wrote on the paper. The decline in the arms
trade last year was due to the fact that many countries had taken
because of the recession of the award of new contracts spacing, wrote
the report's author, Richard Grimmett

Canada: arms dealer Schreiber should be extradited

Arms lobbyist is considered conclusions figure in the CDU / CSU
donations scandal
Toronto - A judge in Canada has approved the delivery of the arms
lobbyist Karlheinz Schreiber to Germany. Justice David Watt of the
Ontario Supreme Court will order the extradition of 28 Sign May,
prosecutor Howard Piafsky said on Tuesday in Toronto. The decision is
not yet final because writers can appeal to the Canadian Justice
Department, which would have the last word about his possible
extradition.

Schreiber, who was a key figure in the affairs of donations CDU and
CSU, defends himself for many years after his extradition from
Germany. There is an arrest warrant against him is the Augsburg
prosecutor for tax evasion, bribery and aiding of infidelity. He
should have paid in 1991 in connection with the delivery of tanks to
Saudi Arabia detection kickbacks worth millions to politicians and
other officials.

The German-Canadian businessman was arrested in 1999 on German
request, in Canada, but was released after eight days again

military arms and dealers

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