Light weapons, long reach: Bulgaria's role in the global spread and control of small arms

Abstract

Shortly after the beginning of our new millennium, a UN committee headed by Canadian Ambassador Robert Fowler released a report accusing Bulgaria of numerous and dangerous weapons sales to Angola's Uniao Nacional para a Independencia Total de Angola (UNITA). Such actions by the Bulgarian government violated the UN arms and fuel embargo against the African country. This incident added to the already scandalous list of Bulgaria's arms sales and its role in the global spread of small arms and light weapons. During the Cold War, Bulgaria's small arms record included: weapons and ammunition transfers in the 1970s to Armscor, a South African defence company, in violation of a UN arms embargo; arms sales to the Lebanese militia in 1975, despite the Soviet Union's arming of the Palestinians; weapons transfers to the Nigerian government during the Biafra conflict; military supplies to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) during the 1970s and 1980s; and the sale of grenade launchers, ammunition and artillery shells to Iran during the Iran–Iraq war.