LONDON (AlertNet) - As if getting relief supplies to conflict zones isn't hard enough, there's always a risk the air charter company you've hired is also involved in a spot of weapons smuggling - just ask any seasoned logistics officer.
Last year, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released a study showing more than 90 percent of the air cargo carriers identified in arms trafficking-related reports had also been contracted by U.N. agencies, European Union and NATO member states, as well as major non-governmental organisations, between 2004 and 2009.
In some cases, air cargo companies have delivered both aid and weapons to the same conflict zones.
In an effort to get these firms to clean up their act, SIPRI has launched EthicalCargo.org, a web portal providing aid groups and peacekeeping personnel with tools ranging from codes of conduct and tips for negotiating with carriers to an emergency 24-hour hotline to call for advice.
The idea is promote "ethical transportation policies", according to Hugh Griffiths from SIPRI's arms transfers programme.
"If humanitarian aid and peacekeeping communities decide they are going to use ethical, conflict-sensitive logistics programmes which require their transportation partners where possible to have ethical transportation policies ... this would raise standards across the board," Griffiths told AlertNet.
He said the bulk of the business done by carriers involved in "destabilising commodity flows" is in fact entirely legal.
The sideline may be flying in arms and narcotics to conflict zones and flying out illicit precious minerals. But most of the business is done on behalf of legitimate organisations like aid
groups transporting licit goods.
And this gives them some leverage when it comes to negotiating contracts with these carriers, Griffiths said.
"In the contract discussions it's no longer about the lowest price but about past operating history. The cumulative effect of this will make a difference," he added.
The portal, funded by Sweden's foreign affairs ministry and international development agency SIDA, also provides alerts on the safety record of aircraft SIPRI says are involved in arms trafficking or aid and peacekeeping operations.
For example, Bluebird Aviation, which lists as clients U.N. agencies, international NGOs and USAID among others, crashed four times in six years, SIPRI says.
The same carrier is said to be one of the main providers of the narcotic khat leaf to Somalia, which the United Nations has said plays a significant role in Somalia's war economy.
CHECKLISTS AND COWBOY OPERATORS
Pierre Boulet-Desbareau, logistics coordinator for the Belgian branch of Medecins Sans Frontieres, said in emergency situations it isn't always possible to check out a carrier's operating history so the more information available the better.
"To investigate (an air cargo company) beforehand is difficult when we don't know where the next emergency will be," he told AlertNet, adding that aid agencies often have few choices. "In a lot of contexts, you have very few actors, very few transporters ... so it is not easy at all."
Medical charity Merlin said in an emailed statement it welcomes the EthicalCargo initiative because "evaluating small enterprises in conflict zones is not always clear cut".
But John Ashworth, a Sudan veteran who heads the Nairobi office of IKV Pax Christi, a Christian campaign group, said while he wasn't against improving standards, "heavy-handed" attempts to regulate the industry may make it harder for smaller NGOs with fewer resources to operate.
Yet these groups can make all the difference.
For example, during Sudan's two-decade north-south civil war, several smaller agencies were delivering aid to areas that were not covered by the United Nations' Operation Lifeline Sudan consortium of NGOs.
"That meant we were very often dealing with companies that were cowboy companies. They had no capital, they were running very old and very dangerous aircraft. We often had to give them advances to buy petrol before they could take off but these were the only companies we could get," Ashworth said.
"I think if we go too far down the line and start picking up every single cowboy pilot ... who is making a living by hiring out his little plane to whoever he can, we're closing a door which many aid agencies might need."
Ashworth said codes of conduct are no substitute for the experience and institutional memory required to tackle the complex realities of the field.
"If the aid agencies are using such inexperienced people that they need a code of conduct as a sort of checklist to tell them which company to use and which company they shouldn't use, then that's more of a comment on the aid agencies than the air charter companies," he told AlertNet.
"Checklists don't work. There are a lot more subtleties in real life."
SIPRI's Griffiths acknowledged the dilemmas faced at field level. "We recognise that and that's why we say we're not interested in banning anyone," he said. "We recognise the humanitarian imperative takes precedence."
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