Sixteen Countries have confirmed their attendance at an upcoming Arms Trade Show

What the He** are TWO NATO countries doing at this thing? American weaponry not good enough for them?

PING! Um, is it just me or is it pretty strange that Poland and the Czech Republic, new NATO members would attend a function and rub shoulders with the Iranians?

I guess all that blustering about Russia was just show? Now you'll be buying your arms from them?

I missed the cold war! Really I did.

LOL. It was easier back then ;)

What! I cannot imagine Poland and the Czech Republic going there, but then who knows what to expect from them.

For later.

They have tons of legacy Soviet stuff. They have to keep up on it, and they also provide services to maintain it to other former Soviet clients.

Sure, as they make changes, they pick up more NATO common stuff. But it there is a weapon modification that cheaply increases their capability, they license it and build it for their boys.

The Czechs have had a great arms industry for a long time. They provided 75mm antitank vehicles to the Swiss modeled loosely on the Hetzer (Turtle). Their Warsaw Pact era Vz52 assault rifle fired Soviet ammuntion, but was more accurate, having smaller moving masses. CZ recently bought Dan Wesson, and the British Bren was an Enfield copy of the Brno machinegun (also used by the SS during WWII).

I am pretty sure that the Greeks also bought 122mm artillery.

It isn't a red and blue world any more. All are mixed, and everywhere is purple.

You don't need to go to an arms show for spares and modifications. This is being hailed as a display for new weapons. Besides, weren't the Poles and Czechs supposed to phase out the Warsaw Pact equipment, or did I get that wrong?

"....Their Warsaw Pact era Vz52 assault rifle fired Soviet ammuntion, but was more accurate, having smaller moving masses..."

I thought the Vz52 was a pistol (?)...
http://www.sff.net/people/sanders/52.html

Never mind, I found a picture of the carbine.

He has already problems with compression of English language, homo-Sovieticus like hell.

This for example soplyak. Looks like you guys are all talk no action on the "allies" front.

"Polish Arms Smugglers Violated UN Embargoes

By Jorgen Dragsdahl

Warsaw. Polish authorities have exposed a smuggling operation responsible for illegally shipping nearly US $6 million worth of light weapons and ammunition, some to countries under UN arms embargoes. Five former and current directors of two Warsaw-based arms export companies were arrested on 29 September in connection with the case. While sources close to the investigation have told BASIC Reports that Poland has since tightened procedures to prevent such trafficking, other sources claim that the recent bust is "only the tip of the iceberg."

While Poland has strict rules governing arms exports, the case raises serious doubts about enforcement, as well as questions about formal and informal ties between the accused companies and Polish officials. Cenzin, a state-run arms trading company, owns 80 percent of Cenrex, a major arms exporter and the largest of the Polish companies involved in the illegal deals. Steo, the other company implicated in the scandal, belongs to a private entrepreneur. However, Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland's largest newspaper, has reported that Steo also has links to Polish intelligence.

Arms smuggled to conflict regions
BASIC Reports has learned that the illegal activities grew out of legal transfers of surplus Polish stocks to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in the early 1990s. Some weapons intended for the newly independent Baltic states were diverted by middlemen and never reached their intended destinations. In Poland, Cenrex and Steo filed the appropriate paperwork and secured official approval to transfer the weapons to a Latvian company. While an official in the Latvian Ministry of Defense confirmed receipt of the shipments, the weapons never in fact reached Latvia. Instead, while at sea, the weapons were off-loaded to other vessels and transported to Somalia and Croatia, both subject to UN arms embargoes at the time, while others were shipped to Sudan.

From 1992 to 1994, Cenrex allegedly exported 1,000 AK-47 assault rifles, 14,000 TT handguns, 160 grenade launchers, 100 Taurus revolvers and millions of rounds of ammunition. During 1995 and 1996, the Steo company smuggled 2,000 rifles, 10,000 TT handguns and one million rounds of ammunition through Latvia into Estonia. From there, the weapons were sold on the black market to mafia-type groups. Some of the handguns have since been recovered in Russia, Germany and Poland, and even as far away as Japan.

Jacek Spyt, prosecutor in the harbor city of Gdansk, through which most of the shipments traveled, told BASIC Reports that, "We have proof that the Polish firms knew what they were doing." The five suspects have been charged with illegal arms trading, accepting bribes, smuggling and falsifying customs documents. If convicted, they face up to 12 years in prison."

Or this:

"Last week, the Polish "Rzeczpospolita" accused the Military Information services (WSI) of illicit arms sales between 1992-6 through both private and state-run entities. The weapons were plundered from the Polish army and sold at half price to Croatia and Somalia, both under UN arms embargo.

Deals were struck with the emerging international operations of the Russian mafia. Terrorist middlemen and Latvian state officials were involved. Breaching Poland's democratic veneer, the Polish Ministry of Defense threatened to sue the paper for disclosing state secrets.

Police in Lodz is still investigating the alarming disappearance of 4 Arrow anti-aircraft missiles from a train transporting arms from a factory to the port of Gdansk, to be exported. The private security escort claim innocence."

And this: Shows you're not too much different than Russia as you arm the same people. Sudan, Indonesia, what do you care if they're using your weapons to put down democracy movements (/sarcasm):

"Arms Trade Fuelling Human Rights Abuse in Darfur

SUADN -- November 16 -- The helicopter pilots deliberately and indiscriminately attacked the informal internally displaced persons' settlement knowing very well that there were innocent civilians.
African Union Commission Ceasefire Violation report on the attack in Hashaba and Gallab Villages on 26 August 2004

The only thing in abundance in Darfur is weapons. It’s easier to get a Kalashnikov than a loaf of bread.
Jan Egeland, UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, 1 July 2004

Amnesty International today revealed details of the uncontrolled arms exports that have fuelled massive human rights abuses in Sudan, including the killing, rape, torture and displacement of more than a million civilians since the Darfur conflict began in February 2003.

"Governments must stop turning a blind eye to the immediate and long term consequences of this totally irresponsible trade. They must ensure that the UN Security Council imposes a mandatory and rigorously monitored arms embargo on all parties to the conflict in Sudan including the government’s armed forces. The embargo should aim to stop all exports of arms that are likely to be used to commit human rights violations," said Elizabeth Hodgkin, Amnesty International's Sudan researcher.

At a news conference in Nairobi ahead of this week‘s meeting of the UN Security Council in the same city, Amnesty International delegates presented a report identifying the main types of arms sent to Sudan and the governments that have deliberately or unwittingly allowed them to be sent.

The report, Sudan: Arming the perpetrators of grave abuses in Darfur shows how Sudanese government forces and their militia allies have used such arms for grave human rights violations, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

"Two Antonov aeroplanes, five helicopters and two MIGs attacked our village at around 6am. Five tanks came into town. The attack lasted until 7pm...Eighteen men and two children from our family were killed when fleeing." Testimony given to Amnesty International in May 2004 by Aziza Abdel Jaber Mohammed and her half sister Zahra Adam Arja on the attack of Kornoy in North Darfur in December 2003.

Based on the testimony of hundreds of survivors gathered by Amnesty International as well as commercial documents, UN arms trade data and other sources - the report’s main findings include:

Military aircraft and components sold to Sudan from the Russian Federation, China and Belarus, with helicopter spare parts from Lithuania, despite repeated use of such aircraft to bomb villages and support ground attacks on civilians;
Tanks, military vehicles and artillery transferred to Sudan from Belarus, Russia and Poland, even though such equipment has been used to help launch indiscriminate and direct attacks on civilians;
Grenades, rifles, pistols, ammunition and other small arms and light weapons exported to Sudan from many countries, but mainly China, France, Iran and Saudi Arabia;
The recent involvement of arms brokering companies from the UK and Ireland attempting to provide large numbers of Antonov aircraft and military vehicles from Ukraine and pistols from Brazil;
Military training and cooperation offered by Belarus, India, Malaysia and Russia.

"Some governments such as Bulgaria, Lithuania and the UK have already begun to take action to halt the arms flows to Sudan, and the European Union has imposed an embargo, but other governments show no sign of wanting to turn off the tap that is fuelling these atrocities", said Brian Wood, Amnesty International's research manager on the arms and security trade

Amnesty International is appealing to the UN Security Council to impose a mandatory arms embargo to halt exports of arms likely to be used to commit human rights violations. The embargo should be accompanied by rigorous UN monitoring both inside and outside Sudan.

The organization is calling on all states mentioned in the report to take immediate concrete steps to suspend all transfers of those types of arms and related logistical and security supplies that are being used for grave human rights violations in Sudan.

To prevent the arms trade from contributing to such disasters, Amnesty International is also campaigning for all states to establish much more rigorous controls on conventional arms, including the establishment of an Arms Trade Treaty which would prohibit arms exports to those likely to use them to violate international human rights and humanitarian law."