07 June
2006 - International — In a verdict that will
have far reaching implications for the international
timber trade, a judge in The Hague has found a
former timber trader and arms dealer guilty of
breaking the UN arms embargo in Liberia and sentenced
him to a maximum of 8 years in prison.
Dutchman Gus Kouwenhoven was
at the centre of the timber-for-arms trade in
Liberia between 2000 and 2003. This 'blood-timber'
funded the purchase of weapons for former Liberian
President and warlord Charles Taylor and used
in a war that claimed the lives of more than 250,000
people.
The West African country of
Liberia had been embroiled in a civil war for
much of the past 15 years and during the period
of 2000-2003, Kouwenhoven's two logging companies
sold large amounts of Liberia's forests to Europe
and China.
The money from the trade in
Liberian timber funded the purchase and smuggling
of arms that helped prop-up Taylor's regime and
prolong the civil war. In court Kouwenhoven was
described by prosecutors as one of the 'inner
circle' of former president Taylor, himself now
facing charges of war crimes.
The Liberian 'blood-timber'
was bought by some of Europe's biggest timber
traders who refused to stop buying timber from
Kouwenhoven despite increasing evidence of the
link between the timber and the smuggling of weapons
in violation of an international arms embargo.
Between 2000 and 2003, we uncovered
that European timber traders including Swiss-German
Danzer, Danish DLH Nordisk, Dutch Wijma, Greece-based
Shelman, German Feldmeyer-Group and the Italian
Tecnoalp were all involved in buying timber from
Kouwenhoven's two companies in Liberia.
Only after 7 July 2003, when
the UN Security Council imposed sanctions on Liberian
timber exports, were the ties between Kouwenhoven
and the European timber trade finally terminated.
France and China had previously blocked the sanctions
for three years. A month after the ban in timber
exports came into effect, the civil war ended
and Charles Taylor fled to Nigeria.
"This case illustrates
that the international timber trade is still unable
to regulate itself. The lack of legislation at
international level on imports of illegal or conflict
timber contributed to this horrible example of
destructive exploitation of a natural resource,
fuelling civil war and related crimes against
humanity. Governments must take up their responsibility
to stop illegal and blood-timber trade right now",
said Greenpeace International Africa forest campaigner
Stephan van Praet.
We are calling on governments
and timber traders to ban the importing of timber
from illegal and destructive logging. Timber from
conflict-prone countries like Burma, Ivory Coast
and the Democratic Republic of Congo continues
to be freely traded on the international market.
A ban on the importation of
illegal and destructive timber would ensure that
companies and consumers do not fuel crimes against
humanity and the environment.
