Questions swirl around arms on abducted Ukrainian ship

Kiev - Ukraine's government on Friday claimed a controversial Ukrainian tank shipment hijacked by Somali pirates was destined for the Kenyan army, not wartorn South Sudan - making the fate of the freighter, its cargo, and its hapless 20-man crew even murkier than before. A load of 33 refurbished T-72 tanks and thousands of tonnes of other military equipment aboard the MV Faina was all part of a legitimate state-to-state arms export, and in no way an illicit arms transfer, according to a statement made public by Ukraine's State Service of Export Control (USSEC). Sponsored Links: Somali pirates in small boats grabbed the Belize-flagged cargo vessel on September 26. US Navy officials and Ukrainian media were quick to accuse Kiev of attempting to bypass a UN ban on the transfer of weapons to the troubled Southern Sudan and Darfur regions. Ukraine's government on Friday said those charges were groundless, and tried to prove it by making public copies of a state-to-state contract. The contract seemed to show an order for Ukraine's national arms export monopoly Ukrspetsexport to ship the weaponry to a supply and ordnance division of the Kenyan Ministry of Defence. Other items contained in the delivery include four rapid-fire anti-aircraft cannon, heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, an undetermined number of armored personnel carriers, and around 1,000 tons of ammunition, according the Stockholm International Peace Watch (SIPW), an international security NGO. Ukrainian opposition media questioned the government's declaration, charging that a four-letter notation in the contract - 'g.o.s.s' - in fact identified the intended receiver of the shipment as 'The government of South Sudan', according to a Kievsky Telegraf newspaper article.