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MOVIE “GUN-RUNNER” VS REAL LIFE GUN-RUNNER Where is Victor Bout?

By Thomas Kai Toteh ~ April 10 2006

Movies may be for the entertainment of a particular or a variety of audiences, but the drama, in most movies portrays a situation or succession of events in real life, which is intended for representation by actors impersonating the characters and performing a dialogue action.

Lord of War is a movie that is thrilling to many but troubling and stirring the bitterness of those who witnessed the real events it portrays, and were and still victims of the situation the movie tries to dramatize. The War of Lord is a movie of September 2005 in which Nicolas Cage a.k.a. Yuri Orlov portrays a gun-runner who arms the dictators, tyrants, and genocide perpetrators in Africa including Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Though this movie is stunning and entertaining, it may have the intent to enlighten or give a clear picture of what is happening in African trouble countries and who are the perpetrators.  Lord of War is a story-telling perfection. The opening scene depicts the life of a bullet, from its creation in the factory to the moment it blasts through the head of a poor African child.

Some People who watch War of Lord are only entertained and others are sorry for the sufferings of poor Africans at the hands of wealth seekers who have no remorse and are extremely insensitive to the incalculable disasters their actions may leave behind. One viewer of War of Lord remarked, “This is a sad story to watch, but it helps to tell us and the rest of the world what is really going over there in Africa”
The movie which was filmed in South Africa for its geographical setting for Liberia and the Sierra Leone is based on the prevailing circumstances that the United Nations has been struggling with since its formation in 1945. Gun-runners or arms traffickers came into existence the day Europeans pulled out of Africa. Gun-runners are today an open challenge to UN arms embargo (they are outwitting legal arms export industry). The UN’s “hard to pin down” African Merchants of Death are successful in Angola, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Congo-Brazzaville, Rwanda, Sudan, Swaziland, Uganda, Somalia, and the rest of  African trouble spots.

Lord of War depicts how arms are being traded to African war lords. But who are the real life gun-runners? The United Nations knows who they are. UN knows who the gun-runners are, where they come from and how they operate. In 2000, The Guardian reported that UN named Victor Bout, a former KGB officer as a millionaire gun-runner; he earned his name, “Africa’s Merchant of Death.” Numerous articles and news were published about Victor Bout’s undermining international sanctions by supplying arms for diamonds to rebels in Africa.

Where is Victor Bout today? The multi-millionaire gun-runner and his collaborators are still eluding the UN or are they significant contributors to other countries’ economies?  Victor Bout, who operates a fleet of aircrafts around the world, was in the news up to 2005, still active and defiant.  LA Times reported Victor Bout was last contacted in Moscow in 2004.

The United Nations war crime tribunal had mad two fresh arrests: Former Yugoslavia leader, Slobodan Milosevic who died in prison in Hague, and Liberia’s Charles Taylor for crimes against humanity. The world at large burst out over the news of Liberia’s and the world’s most feared warlord, Charles Taylor’s arrest. This news received excitement because at least justice was rendered at last after a long suffering.
But the questions today remain: Where are the real life gun-runners?  What country is harboring Victor Bout and all the gun-runners? Where are they getting their arms from? The answers to these questions would aid the UN and Interpol in bringing to justice all those gun-runners in Europe to justice. The arrest of war lords without the arrest of gun-runners does not achieve the resolve to end warmongering.
For more information about gun-runners, type as key words, Victor Bout in your search engine

 
   

           
           

 


About the Author:

Thomas Kai Toteh is an author and freelance writer. He is a  Journalism major at Old Dominnion University, USA

 

 

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