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Moldovan cargo planes similar to the crashed Antonov-26 (shown in file photo) show a pattern of hushed-up arms transfers to Iraq

CHISINAU (Tiraspol Times) - Investigators examining the downing of a Moldovan "Antonov-26" cargo plane in Iraq have raised doubts over whether the plane was shot down or crashed due to human error. Moldova’s Aerian-Tur M’s An-26, registered No.: ER-26068, was en route from Adan, Turkey, to Iraq’s Balad.

The 10 January incident, which killed 34 people including all Moldovan crew members, has been described as a puzzle and has been linked to a pattern of illegal Moldovan arms trafficking to the Middle East. Throughout 2006 and the first two weeks of 2007, planes from Moldova have continually been involved in shipping weapons for Sunni insurgents in and around Baghdad.

Turkish Minister of Transportation Binali Yıldırım has publicly raised suspicion that the plane was shot down by US troops, noting also that "The flight recorder of the crashed plane is in Iraq. The plane was coming from Moldova to Iraq," and protesting the lack of cooperation with Turkey. Despite having lost the most victims in the incident, Turkish experts who were not allowed to join a group of American, Iraqi and Moldovan professionals decrypting the flight recorders.

A previous statement from Yıldırım had raised suspicions over the reason behind the crash when he said that the American troops removed the wreckage from Balad Airport. Abdulkadir Akyüz, the only passenger to survive the plane crash and hospitalized in Ankara has not yet fully recovered, said Yıldırım, and added that he will pay a visit to Akyüz soon. American troops are said to have grown increasingly suspicious of the steady flow of Moldovan cargo planes to Iraq, carrying a continuous stream of weapons that have fuelled the islamic insurgency.

U.S. government battles Moldova over Jihad weapons pipeline

A veritable pipeline of weapons from Bosnia and Moldova have been flowing steadily to fuel the Jihad in Iraq and other parts of the Middle East for at least five years, with Moldovan Antonov-26 cargo planes at the center of the trafficking network.

Moldova, officially the poorest country in Europe, has been caught in numerous cases of weapons trafficking to groups in the Middle East. There is clear and unrefutable evidence of the Moldovan connection in arming the Jihad against the West, showed by sources such as the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland. In 2002, the U.S. Government sanctioned two Moldovan companies for selling selling small arms and other military equipment to Iran, considered by American intelligence analysts to be the main state sponsor of the insurgency in Iraq. Shortly thereafter, another investigation put the spotlight on the transfer of huge amounts of Kalashnikov rifles and ammo to Islamic troublespots. (Source: Small Arms Survey 2003, a project of the Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, page 109).

To deflect attention from the repeated American criticism, Moldova instead claims that "Transnistria" (its word for Pridnestrovie) is a black hole which supplies weapons to Al-Qaeda. But unlike Moldova's proven arms transfers, no such evidence has ever surfaced to lend credibility to claims that anyone from Pridnestrovie has ever trafficked weapons anywhere at any time. The government in Pridnestrovie says that it is a smokescreen and a Moldovan fantasy which has no basis in reality.

Pridnestrovie is landlocked, with a European Union border control mission on one side, and the Moldovan government on the other. Moreover, unlike Moldova, where cargo planes regularly fly night missions to Iraq, there is no cargo air traffic whatsoever from Pridnestrovie; night or day.

Moldova supplies 200,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles to Iraq's insurgents

According to a report published by the United Nations [1], Moldova withheld significant data on transfers of small arms and light weapons of the type used by militant Iraq insurgents against American troops. Information about the transfers, all from Moldova in 2004 and 2005, had been withheld by the Moldovan Government and not reported internationally. These transfers did not pass through Transdniestria.

Weapons proliferation specialist hired by the United Nations confirm that a lack of overall transparency on the part of the Government of Moldova with respect to arms transfers, coupled with valid concerns about past practice, has left international observers uncertain as to whether Moldova is able to implement and enforce its rhetorical commitments to SALW transfer control, states the report.

In May 2006, Moldova's reputation was further damaged by the involvement of Jetline International, a shipping firm previously registered in Moldova as AEROCOM, in controversial transfers of more than 200,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles from Bosnia to Iraq. Amnesty International reported that many of these arms ended up in the hands of insurgents, militia and rebel groups. The Guardian, in a piece of investigative reporting published on 12 May 2006, showed how these weapons "went missing" in Iraq. Two Canadian intelligence analysts believe that behind the arms deal were powerful Islamic interests, tied to both Bosnia and the Moldovan government, and that the 200,000 Kalashnikov assault rifles had always been intended for the insurgents in Iraq. Shortly after the arrival of the Moldovan cargo, the situation in Iraq escalated and turned into what observers on the ground began to classify as an outright civil war.

Although the West continues to back Moldova, some have now begun to question the wisdom of this strategy, calling it 'one sided' and 'simplistic' as Moldovan-supplied arms continue to fuel the killings in Iraq.

Balad, where the Moldovan Antonov-26 went down, is the main US military logistics hub in Iraq, north of Baghdad. The US military, which controls Iraqi air space, declined to comment.

See also:
» UN Report clears Transdniester of weapons smuggling; Praises transparency and co-operation [2]

On the web:
» Black Propaganda: Anti-independence misinformation [3]