How did Italian bullets end up in Myanmar despite EU Arms Embargo?

How did Italian bullets end up in Myanmar despite EU Arms Embargo?
Cheddite - or Cheddite Italy S.r.l.- a company based in the Italian province of Livorno- manufactures and sells ammunition. The Irrawaddy first reported on how the Italian made bullets may have got into Myanmar- highlighting the serious difficulty in tracing small arms sold globally

Elena Siniscalco/Mizzima

In North Okkalapa, Yangon, on the 3rd of March 2021, Myanmar police fired live bullets at a civilian ambulance.

As the aftermath of the event was recorded, a witness held up one of the bullets to show the camera. Discernible on the bullet was a name: Cheddite.

  1. or Cheddite Italy S.r.l.- a company based in the Italian province of Livorno- manufactures and sells ammunition. The Irrawaddy first reported on how the Italian made bullets may have got into Myanmar- highlighting the serious difficulty in tracing small arms sold globally.

The European Union (EU) has imposed an arms embargo on Myanmar since the 1990s which prohibits Italian companies from selling weapons to the country. Italy has more recently, joined the international community in condemning the violent coup d’état that took place in February, and the ongoing use of force against civilians.

So, one question lingers. How and why did Cheddite’s bullets end up in Myanmar?

Tracking Arms Trade

This question is not easy to answer unless one knows where to look, especially as the Italian Government’s Report on Arms Export records no exports of weapons or ammunition by an Italian company directly to Myanmar in the last thirty years.

However, Giorgio Beretta, an arms trade analyst from the Permanent Observatory on Small Arms and Security and Defense Policies (OPAL), did know where to look and was able to provide an explanation using information available in the public domain.

Beretta first consulted the Italian Ministry of Defence's register of arms exporting companies to find Cheddite first registered with the Italian Government body in 2014. However, they have never made a request for any type of licence from the relevant state authority- the Unit for the Authorization of Armament Materials (UAMA).

International commerce data from the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) goes on to show the export of arms and ammunition from the province of Livorno, where Cheddite is based, to Turkey in 2014 valued at €363,961.

According to an Amnesty International report, Cheddite collaborates with the Turkish company Yavaşçalar YAF which is a subsidiary of the larger Turkish company Zsr Patlayici Sanayi A.S. This company produces cartridge fillings for Cheddite.

Beretta then traced exports from Turkey to Myanmar in 2014 through COMTRADE, the United Nations’ International Trade Statistics Database. These figures reveal that Turkey exported 7,177 sporting/hunting rifles valued at USD 1,452,625; 2,2250 noted in the documents as ‘parts and accessories’ and 46 thousand ammunition rounds valued at USD 223,528.

According to Beretta, the arms and ammunition exported from Livorno to Turkey recorded in the ISTAT database and those recorded by COMTRADE from Turkey to Myanmar are compatible. This strongly suggests that the Italian made bullets arrived in Myanmar via Turkey.

Further evidence to support this scenario is the ‘2014’ stamped on the bullet shown in the photo of the ambulance attack.

Who is responsible for breaching the arms embargo?

So who is responsible for letting this happen? Cheddite? Yavaşçalar YAF? Both companies? The Italian and Turkish governments?

Beretta suggests a number of likely scenarios.

Perhaps Cheddite sold ammunitions to the Turkish company without knowing where they would end up, simply assuming that they would stay in Turkey.

Perhaps Yavaşçalar did not know that, according to Italian law, it was legally obliged to communicate to Cheddite where it would sell the final product in case the final user would be embargoed military forces.

Or perhaps Cheddite knew that the Turkish company had the intention to sell ammunition to Myanmar and went through with the deal anyway.

In order to discover where oversight has failed, OPAL and the Italian Peace and Disarmament Network have called for a full investigation into the matter.

The Italian manufacturing industry

Another organization which has vocally denounced the use of Italian bullets to attack the ambulance Italia-Birmania. According to Albertina Soliani, an Italian Senator and active member of the organization, this incident is symbolic of broader problems in global arms trade regulation.

Soliani said that the Italian government needs to conduct scrupulous checks and inspections on all Italian industries manufacturing weapons.

‘There should be a collective conscience that asks for reconversion of the industry to a country that manufactures weapons. We’re talking about a reconversion of the weapons supply chain […] This is politics, this is the job of Parliament and Government. From the ammunitions found in Myanmar, it is paramount to trace back the production chain right to the company that manufactured them, to check all the steps and whether they’ve been transparent or not. And this is feasible,’ Soliani pointed out.

She recalled that around three years ago Myanmar's coup leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, allegedly flew to Turin to speak with representatives of Leonardo, a multinational defence and security company that also manufactures weapons and military technology.

‘That’s the issue,’ said Soliani. ‘It is not hidden. It is very evident. And it is part of these economic developments related to the production, trade and use of military weapons. It is related to how we end up with Italian ammunition used against the civil population”, she says. Soliani highlights how ‘heart-breaking’ it was to realize that ‘through our activity, we bring weapons that are used against civilians there.’

A flaw in the system – and what next?

As Giorgio Beretta points out, companies cannot contemplate circumventing the law for commercial reasons. In this specific case, Beretta talks about a ‘flaw in the system.’ Indeed, in Italy, there are two different laws regulating the export of weapons and ammunition.

Law 185/90 regulates the export of military weapons and ammunition. Since 2012, it also regulates the export of weapons and ammunition to armed forces, police forces and governmental bodies of foreign countries. This law requires Italian companies to report the recipient and end-user of the product in trade deals to Italy’s relevant state bodies.

However, the law is much laxer when it comes to ‘common’ weapons.

‘Common’ weapons for ‘civilian users’ are regulated by Law 110/75, which is not as strict as Law 185 regarding the control of exports. Indeed, Law 110/75 does not require Italian companies to report transaction involving additional exportation steps before reaching the end user or the actual end-user of weapons and ammunition.

In 2014, Cheddite could have categorized its bullets as ‘common’ weapons as these bullets can be used for hunting. So, it is also possible that Cheddite sold them to Turkey as ‘common’ weapons, thereby not breaking the Italian law but effectively bending it.

Beretta argued that to avoid incidences like this in the future, both Italian laws should apply the same conditions of end user sale to all types of weapons and ammunition.

The Cheddite bullets incident is undoubtedly worrying. It also speaks volumes about the seriousness of the situation in Myanmar and about the numbness of the international community’ through its lack of adequate response. Italy, and the EU more broadly, should do more to halt violence in Myanmar.

According to Albertina Soliani, the EU needs to recognize its responsibility and take an active stance to stop the junta’s unlawfulness in the country.

‘The EU must use the only weapon it has: politics.

“It has to talk; to forge deals. Politics means that the EU should speak to Xi Jinping about Myanmar, not only about other things. And to Russia, which sells arms to Myanmar. And to Asian countries, which I believe is what it’s doing. But we’re still far behind. We haven’t seen efficient results,’ Soliani says.

If the Italian government listens to the request of OPAL, Italia-Birmania and their network and undertakes an investigation into this matter, it will be possible to ascertain where responsibility actually lies.

Meanwhile, violence is still perpetrated on a daily basis against the people of Myanmar.

And if at the end of the day, the EU arms embargo is not stopping Italian weapons ending up in the bodies of innocent victims opposing illegal military rule in Myanmar, it must be strengthened and made fit for purpose, with adequate resources available for monitoring and enforcement.