“The revelations come amid continued refusals by South Africa to divulge the details of conventional arms sales to Libya’s repressive government – which totalled nearly R69m last year,” news24.com. “Video clips circulating on the internet and filmed as battles raged in the city of Misrata in north-western Libya earlier this year show rebel fighters displaying captured sniper rifles. The weapons have been identified as the work of a Midrand armoury, Truvelo Manufacturers.” And? “There are procedures in South Africa we follow,” Truvelo director Ralf Gebert asserted. “We stick to the rules and regulations. We are not prepared to say yes or no. If the conventional arms control committee wants to divulge any information they are entitled to do so.”
Think of the Children.
During the long arms embargo, SA developed an innovative domestic arms industry, and white South Africans were among the most heavily armed civilans on Earth. Now that the racism and brutality. Of SA’s apartheid government have been replaced by corruption and incompetence (Won’t Get Fooled Again, anyone?) SA civilians are being disarmed.
Their arms industry, however, marches on as one of the countries major finished-goods exporters. They’ve exported some guns here, but most have been utter crap. Remember the Vector CP-1?
Who cares what the regime is using to deliberately kill thousands of innocent civilians, the important thing is that NATO accidentally killed nine.
/sarcasm
OMG! How terrible for civvies to get killed by products from SA or Belgium, especially when they are ‘legitimate’ sales. The UN must do something about this. Oh, what did you say? Of course it’s perfectly fine for the guberment forces to kill rebels using ZPUs, rocket, PKMs and AKs etc.
Actually when I first saw the headline I thought you were referring to Springfield Armory lol.
“Gadaffi’s troops,” the title says.
This clearly calls for a complete ban on Assault Machine Gun Pistol Street-Sweeper Annihilator Evisceration Apocalypse-Inducing Termination Mass Destruction Device Guns™, starting with single-shot .22 rifles.
Doesn’t Bushmaster make a “Tactical” version of one of those?
Yeah, and they supply them with High-Capacity Assault Clips™ and an optional Black-Guy-Killing War Dangerous Destructive Sniper Scope™, as well as Child-Murdering Barrel Shrouds™.
I don’t really understand this post. Does it really suggest that firms have no responsibility concerning to whom they sell weapons? What is the substantive difference between Gaddafi’s thugs and los Zetas?
Responsibility is rightly a huge theme on this blog; but seemingly only personal responsibility. Yet it is suggested (due to the slippery slope principle) that only unbridled freedom will protect our rights. Doesn’t greater freedom imply greater responsibility?
In general, businesses require an export cert from their government to sell arms to foreign governments. While the international press is wringing their hands over this, why are they not excoriating the South African guv’mint? My guess: racism.
The difference between the two is that Gadhafi’s thugs, while being guilty of war crimes, are the army of a sovereign nation that is/was recognized by the international community. Los Zetas may be on the verge of being an international corporation, but it does not have the legitimate buying power of a sovereign state.
It should be noted that before the outbreak of the civil war in Libya, Gadhafi’s relations with the West were on the rise. While not being a totally rational leader, he was at least moving away from irrationality that had been a hallmark of his leadership before the war against Saddam Hussein scared him straight. Sales of weapons to his country, while probably not the greatest move, would not be frowned upon. I noticed a few FN2000’s that were supposedly captured from his elite units. Where did they come from?
I’m sure that the ATF has traced these sniper rifles to a gun store in Plano, Texas.
One that flies an American flag.
I’ve been to most of the stores here in Plano and can’t seem to find one. There was a new Barrett .50 at one, but the 8k price tag made me reconsider.