Tomas Damnjanovic photographed recently at a party in his honour in Belgrade

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have created new opportunities for arms brokers and traffickers who have previously violated UN sanctions, according to a new report by the South Eastern and Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SEESAC).

The introductory case study in the report, Guns, Planes and Ships, explains that a

Serbian broker, Tomislav Damnjanovic, received contracts worth hundreds of millions

of dollars from the US Department of Defence (DoD). The deal involved transferring stockpiled weapons left over from the Balkan wars to Iraq between 2003 and 2006.

However, the report alleges that Damnjanovic had previously exported components for fighter jets to Liberia and is currently being investigated by the UN Sanction committee

for transporting arms to Somalia.

Damnjanovic set up his own cargo company, Tomisko, in May 2006.  The UN Sanctions Committee for Somalia says that a Tomisko aircraft flew to Baghdad from Bulgaria carrying ammunition on behalf of the US DoD contractors in June 2006. According to the committee, the plane then departed for Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates, and then on to Oman, where it collected 'unspecified cargo'. UN investigators then observed the plane at Mogadishu airport, where they believe it may have delivered arms and ammunition to Islamic militia groups.