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    January 11, 2012

Cyprus Releases Suspected Syrian Arms Ship

   Nathan Morley | Nicosia
   A man looks at the Saint Vincent-flagged "Chariot" cargo ship as it
   sails out of the port of the southern Cypriot city of Limassol, January
   11, 2012.
   Photo: AFP
   A man looks at the Saint Vincent-flagged "Chariot" cargo ship as it
   sails out of the port of the southern Cypriot city of Limassol, January
   11, 2012.

   A ship suspected of carrying tons of munitions bound for Syria is free
   to leave a port in Cyprus after changing its destination.
   The Cypriot Foreign Ministry confirms a Russian ship suspected of
   supplying arms to the Assad regime in Syria had been released from
   port, after a brief detention by authorities.
   The ship was forced to dock for refueling Tuesday at Limassol in
   western Cyprus, following bad weather.
   Local media reported at least 35 tons of munitions and explosive
   material were onboard, with a Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement
   confirming customs officials had discovered four containers and a
   generator in the hold.
   The statement added that the ship, identified as the Saint
   Vincent-flagged MV Chariot, also contained 'a dangerous cargo.' The
   ship, which left the Russian port of St. Petersburg on December 9, has
   been refueled and will set sail when the rough weather in the eastern
   Mediterranean calms.
   According to the Foreign Ministry statement, it was agreed that the
   ship would sail to an alternative location and not Syria, but details
   of the new destination have not been disclosed. The government of
   Cyprus, which is an European Union member, insisted the ship had not
   breached the terms of the EU ban on sending arms to Syria.
   The statement also confirmed that port officials had not been able to
   check the entire cargo due to tight packing in the hold of the vessel.
   An EU foreign policy spokesperson, Maja Kocijancic, said the bloc
   implemented a strict arms embargo on Syria in reaction to the Assad
   government's crackdown on the country's democracy movement.
   "Overall regarding the situation in Syria, the European Union has a
   very sound position and specifically regarding the exports of arms," he
   said. "The European Union has already, in May, adopted all the
   necessary legal acts that provide for an embargo and exports to Syria
   of arms and also of equipment that could be used for internal
   repression."
   The European Union has also banned 13 Syrian government officials from
   travelling anywhere in the 27-nation union and frozen the assets of
   those officials.
   A spokesman for [1]Amnesty International, James Lynch, said the
   organization is calling for decisive U.N. Security Council action by
   implementing a comprehensive embargo on Damascus.
   "A comprehensive arms embargo is really the bare minimum that the
   international community should be considering on Syria," he said. "We
   also want to see Syria referred to the international criminal court."
   Rami Abdul-Rahman, head of the British-based [2]Syrian Observatory for
   Human Rights, said he was mystified as to why the Assad government
   should need to import weapons from abroad.
   "Assad does not need weapons from outside Syria," he said. "Why do we
   need weapons from outside Syria? Already we got now about 500,000 from
   the Syrian army and I do not know how many hundreds of thousands from
   the Syria security forces. Why do they need weapons from outside?"
   Weapons confiscated from a ship carrying arms to Syria were the cause
   of Cyprus' largest peacetime disaster. Exactly six months ago tank
   shells and explosives found on an Iranian cargo ship seized by the U.S.
   Navy in January 2009 and stored in a naval base near Limassol exploded,
   killing 14 people.

References

   1. http://www.amnestyusa.org/
   2. http://www.syriahr.com/