Russian 'merchant of death' arrested in Thailand

BANGKOK/NEW YORK, March 6 (Reuters) - Viktor Bout, an
international arms dealer dubbed the "Merchant of Death," was
arrested in Thailand and charged in New York on Thursday with
trying to sell weapons to Colombian rebels, officials said.


Bout, the target of U.S. sanctions, was charged with
conspiring to sell millions of dollars worth of weapons to the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, U.S. Attorney
Michael Garcia said in New York.


The United States, which has given billions of dollars in
military aid to Colombia to fight the Marxist rebels and drug
cartels, plans to pursue Bout's extradition from Thailand,
officials said.


The FARC are fighting a four-decade-old insurgency against
the Colombian government and are designated as a foreign
terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.


The group is at the center of a diplomatic dispute that
threatened to erupt into military conflict this week, after
Colombia crossed the border into Ecuador to attack FARC rebels
and kill one of their commanders on Saturday. Venezuela, an
Ecuador ally and U.S. antagonist, leaped into the dispute, and
the two countries sent additional troops to their borders with
Colombia.


Bout's associate Andrew Smulian, 46, was charged on
Thursday with conspiring to provide material support to a
terrorist organization. Smulian's whereabouts where not
immediately clear.


FORMER SOVIET OFFICER


A former Soviet air force officer born in Tajikistan in
1967, according to Russian media reports, Bout was picked up at
a Bangkok hotel after entering Thailand on Feb. 29. Police were
searching for an associate.


He was attempting "to procure weapons for Colombia's FARC
rebels," Thai police said in an arrest report.


He has run a network of air cargo companies in the Middle
East, Africa, Eastern Europe and the United States.


According to the United Nations and the U.S. Treasury
Department, Bout has sold or brokered arms that have helped
fuel wars in Afghanistan, Angola, the Democratic Republic of
Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Sudan.


The U.S. Treasury Department seized his cargo planes and
froze other assets in 2006.


Bout has repeatedly denied the allegations.


Stephan Rapp, Chief Prosecutor at Sierra Leone's
U.N.-backed war crimes court, welcomed the arrest: "It's very
good news for justice and for international law enforcement."


He accused Bout of using his international network to
smuggle arms through neighboring Liberia to fuel Sierra Leone's
1991-2002 civil war, which killed more than 50,000 people.


Rapp said Bout could be indicted by Sierra Leone's Special
Court, which is currently due to close in 2009, if
international donors came forward to provide funding.


"These kinds of cases need to be made against not just the
politicians and the fighters, but the people who provide
weapons of war," he said. "This is a great opportunity."


Rapp said Bout could also be a witness in the continuing
trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor in The Hague.
Taylor is accused of crimes against humanity for his role in
Sierra Leone's civil war.