Kenya Denies Helping Arm Southern Sudan

The Kenyan government has dismissed a report by a Swiss research institute that says it is secretly helping Southern Sudan stockpile weapons in violation of a U.S.-backed peace agreement. The Small Arms Survey says Southern Sudan government forces have received tanks and weapons that had previously been held in Kenya.

In an interview with VOA, Kenya's Defense Ministry Spokesman Bogita Ongeri dismissed the Small Arms Survey report as speculation.

The document, which contains satellite images allegedly showing T-72 Soviet tanks at the Southern Sudan military headquarters, claims the vehicles were the same tanks that arrived in Kenya in 2008. The Swiss team that authored the report says the photos are credible proof the Kenyan government has helped South Sudan obtain weapons in violation of a peace deal backed by the United States.

But Ongeri told VOA there is no evidence to back the claims, and the tanks are still in the hands of the Kenyan military.

"We have clearly indicated that those are our tanks and they are. I do no know where they are getting those things," he said.




AP
The Ukrainian cargo ship MV Faina arrives at the Kenyan port of Mombasa, 23 Feb 2009, after Somali pirates released the vessel held for some 4 months
The Soviet tanks first arrived at the Kenyan port of Mombassa amid a blaze of publicity in 2008, aboard the MV Faina cargo ship. The Ukrainian-owned vessel had recently been released by pirates after it was hijacked off the coast of neighboring Somalia.

Media attention on the ship's military cargo had led to increasing speculation it had originally been headed for South Sudan. The Small Arms Survey says the tanks were part of three shipments secretly under contract to the Southern Sudan government that were delivered to Kenya's Ministry of Defense.

Source:voanews.com/