The international smuggling of arms contributes to the fomenting of wars and leads to mass violations of human rights, notably as a consequence of war, the international organisation for the protection of human rights said in its 150-page report.
A lot of weapons left from Tuzla airforce base and part from the Croatian port of Ploce, AI cited a NATO official as saying in June 2005 in its report in which it documented the Balkan arms and ammunition export route.
The same source said that the deal was organised through embassies and that military attache offices were involved. The idea was to get the weapons out of Bosnia where they posed a threat and to ship them to Iraq where they were necessary.
The largest arms shipments occurred in 2005 and Swiss, UK and US companies were involved, but also one Croatian company - Scout d.o.o. - which, according to EUFOR and OSCE sources, played a key role in the early phases of the arms transfer, AI said.
Scout d.o.o. maintained a long-standing relationship with the Pentagon and good connections with the Bosnian Federation Ministry of Defence, said a US State Department diplomat from the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs.
Hina did not manage to contact the responsible persons from the Zagreb-based company founded in 1992, which lists its business as trade, tourism and transport of arms and ammunition. Hina was also unable to obtain information on arms transfer from the competent Croatian ministries.
NATO and later EUROR were in charge for the arms control in Bosnia after the war, AI said, adding that the US-sponsored arms transfer to Iraq was in fact a transaction between two countries because the authorities in Bosnia issued licences after receiving a certificate stating the end user -- the interim Iraqi government and the coalition forces led by the United States.
"However, the sale, purchase, transportation and storage of the weapons has been handled entirely by a complex network of private arms brokers, freight forwarders and air cargo companies operating at times illegally and subject to little or no governmental regulation," read the report.
According to NATO and its Stabilisation Force, weapons stockpiles in Bosnia numbered approximately 850,000 small arms and light weapons (SAWL) in February 2004. According to US documentation, by December 2004, 239,958 pieces of SALW had been approved for export.