Avient ?
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Hello Chaps,
Just noticed that Avient are looking for an Ops Manager, anyone know anything about them, what they are like to work for etc etc and potentially what the money may be ?
Thanks in advance
Mike
Just noticed that Avient are looking for an Ops Manager, anyone know anything about them, what they are like to work for etc etc and potentially what the money may be ?
Thanks in advance
Mike
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Avient
It will do you good to Google "Avient" and its alleged owner "Andrew Smith", and even search for info about this outfit and Mr Smith on this forum. Ample information about what they allegedly have been up to is available on the web.
How this guy manages to weave and duck-and-dive responsibility for his actions and activities in the Congo remains a mystery, or perhaps not!
Others not so fortunate have ended up in The Hague and held accountable. Every other operator in the same line of business has been hounded out of a living but it seems there is one set of rules for the British and Americans, and another for the rest of the world.
How this guy manages to weave and duck-and-dive responsibility for his actions and activities in the Congo remains a mystery, or perhaps not!
Others not so fortunate have ended up in The Hague and held accountable. Every other operator in the same line of business has been hounded out of a living but it seems there is one set of rules for the British and Americans, and another for the rest of the world.
Last edited by AAL; 20th Apr 2007 at 10:53.
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This About Sums Up Avients Source Of Fortune
Briton linked to Congo war crimes
Jon Swain – The Times
THE deadliest war in the world was raging and hundreds were dying every day when Graham Pelham, a former special forces operative in the French Foreign Legion, reported for duty in the Congo. He had been appointed country manager of Avient, an air cargo company run by Andrew Smith, a former British army officer.
What he discovered has led, seven years on, to moves in Britain to investigate Smith — a pillar of the community in the peaceful Wiltshire village where he lives — for possible war crimes.
The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which had drawn in troops from six African nations, was of huge concern to the UN. By the time the war ended in 2003 more than 3m people had died. The civilian toll was the highest anywhere since the second world war.
Pelham, an Irishman, was acting as an undercover investigator for the UN security council. He had been sent to the Congo to find out about the activities of another company that was believed to be trafficking in illicit weapons and diamonds.
Instead he reported back to his controller on the activities of the company employing him.
Avient’s role was supposed to be logistical but Pelham says he was put in charge of helicopter gunships and civilian aircraft that had been converted to drop bombs and were being flown by Avient crews.
Under a crewing agreement Smith had signed with General Joseph Kabila, the future president of the Congo, on September 21, 1999, Avient undertook to provide aircrew who would “operate along and behind the enemy lines in support of ground troops and against the invading forces”.
Pelham claims he found that Ukrainian and Russian aircrews recruited by Avient on behalf of the Congolese airforce were flying blanket bombing raids that in all probability were killing and maiming civilians caught in the war zone thousands of feet below.
Rudimentary bombs made from industrial gas cylinders filled with TNT were being rolled out of the backs of giant Antonov transport aircraft flown at high altitude in indiscriminate raids, according to Pelham.
The crewing agreement signed by Smith and Kabila noted that Avient was acting as an “intermediary to facilitate the supply” of aircrew and said the company could not be held accountable for the individual performance of crew members.
Pelham says that the reality was different. He alleges that Avient was providing crews for aircraft involved in military activities, including Antonovs and an MI-24 attack helicopter gunship, and that Smith knew what they were doing.
“I was reporting to him and he was completely aware of what was going on,” Pelham said. “It was not the government coming to Smith and saying, ‘Can we use these aircraft for these missions like this?’ It was, ‘You have got a problem. You do not have helicopter support and you do not have military aircraft support. Let us assist you. We will run that for you’.”
At one point, he claims, he tried to put a stop to the bombing by informing Smith that he was not happy about the missions. But he says in a sworn affidavit that Smith replied: “This is what Avient is there for and it is part of the fun of Avient’s activities.”
Last week Pelham spoke to The Sunday Times about his clandestine mission in the Congo and said he had discovered that Avient crews were not only rolling crude bombs out of the backs of their aircraft but strafing from a MI-24 helicopter gunship.
“All the aircraft that were being used by Avient were kitted out on the back with rollers on the floor,” Pelham said. “We then constructed special pallets that could slide along the rollers to deploy bombs out of the back. And we rigged them so that as the pallets rolled towards the back the safety catch on the bombs would come off.”
()He added: “Bombs were being dropped from high altitude and there was no accuracy in it. It was blanket bombing.”
At one point, Pelham said, he learnt that Avient crews were to drop aviation-fuel bombs, which he knew to be “very destructive”. He said he had foiled this by claiming he did not know how to arm the bombs and that nobody else should try because they had sophisticated pressure devices that could detonate on change of altitude.
Just before he arrived, an Antonov 12 cargo plane loaded with bombs had blown up while taking off from Mbandaka airfield. All six Avient crewmen had died.
Pelham’s testimony is to be presented with other documentary evidence to Lord Goldsmith, the attorney general, by Rights and Accountability in Development (RAID), an Oxford-based group campaigning for corporate responsibility in the Congo.
Tricia Feeney, the group’s executive director, said: “In view of the gravity of the allegations and the evidence that RAID has compiled we are calling on the attorney general to instigate a full investigation into whether the activities of Andrew Smith as director of Avient during the war in the Congo constitute complicity in war crimes.”
The development may embarrass the government. Smith has claimed that he cleared his operations with the British high commission in Harare, the Zimbabwean capital, where Avient is registered, and that diplomats were aware of his role in providing aircrews for the Congo government.
Also the Department of Trade and Industry has previously exonerated Smith of mercenary activities in the Congo following evidence presented by the United Nations.
In 2002, a UN panel of experts named Avient among companies whose activities in the Congo were alleged to have breached international norms. In 2004, however, the DTI found that a number of allegations were unsubstantiated. It accepted that the company was “working within a contractual arrangement with the officially recognised government in the area”.
RAID is to press the DTI to reopen its investigation into whether Avient breached the guidelines of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), to which Britain adheres.
Much of the bombing in the Congo in 1999 and 2000 was directed at rebel forces backed by Ugandan troops in Equator province. More than 200,000 people were forced to flee to neighbouring countries and thousands more survived in the forest.
According to Feeney, schools and hospitals were hit and Equator province now has more problems with unexploded ordnance than anywhere else in the Congo.
Smith has denied responsibility for the actions of his aircrews in the Congo. He said: “It is a matter of record that I worked for a company which assisted the government of the DRC to locate crews to fly transport aircraft and helicopters.
“It is also a matter of record that the company was not responsible for the activities of any crew. This lay directly with the legally recognised government of the country. It was also a policy that the company would not comment on matters of state or government.
“The company I was working for at the time was not a UK entity and its activities were conducted with full disclosure to the authorities relevant to its base of operations.”
He now runs his Avient air cargo business from his Wiltshire home, a world away from the war-scarred Congo, and says his fleet of aircraft fly the world. A former officer in the Queen’s Gurkha Engineers, Smith is a well-known local figure. He recently presented the prize to the winner of the ladies’ race at a Royal Artillery point-to-point at Larkhill.
Pelham is doing security work for governments in the Middle East and Africa.
Additional reporting: Brian Johnson-Thomas
Jon Swain – The Times
THE deadliest war in the world was raging and hundreds were dying every day when Graham Pelham, a former special forces operative in the French Foreign Legion, reported for duty in the Congo. He had been appointed country manager of Avient, an air cargo company run by Andrew Smith, a former British army officer.
What he discovered has led, seven years on, to moves in Britain to investigate Smith — a pillar of the community in the peaceful Wiltshire village where he lives — for possible war crimes.
The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which had drawn in troops from six African nations, was of huge concern to the UN. By the time the war ended in 2003 more than 3m people had died. The civilian toll was the highest anywhere since the second world war.
Pelham, an Irishman, was acting as an undercover investigator for the UN security council. He had been sent to the Congo to find out about the activities of another company that was believed to be trafficking in illicit weapons and diamonds.
Instead he reported back to his controller on the activities of the company employing him.
Avient’s role was supposed to be logistical but Pelham says he was put in charge of helicopter gunships and civilian aircraft that had been converted to drop bombs and were being flown by Avient crews.
Under a crewing agreement Smith had signed with General Joseph Kabila, the future president of the Congo, on September 21, 1999, Avient undertook to provide aircrew who would “operate along and behind the enemy lines in support of ground troops and against the invading forces”.
Pelham claims he found that Ukrainian and Russian aircrews recruited by Avient on behalf of the Congolese airforce were flying blanket bombing raids that in all probability were killing and maiming civilians caught in the war zone thousands of feet below.
Rudimentary bombs made from industrial gas cylinders filled with TNT were being rolled out of the backs of giant Antonov transport aircraft flown at high altitude in indiscriminate raids, according to Pelham.
The crewing agreement signed by Smith and Kabila noted that Avient was acting as an “intermediary to facilitate the supply” of aircrew and said the company could not be held accountable for the individual performance of crew members.
Pelham says that the reality was different. He alleges that Avient was providing crews for aircraft involved in military activities, including Antonovs and an MI-24 attack helicopter gunship, and that Smith knew what they were doing.
“I was reporting to him and he was completely aware of what was going on,” Pelham said. “It was not the government coming to Smith and saying, ‘Can we use these aircraft for these missions like this?’ It was, ‘You have got a problem. You do not have helicopter support and you do not have military aircraft support. Let us assist you. We will run that for you’.”
At one point, he claims, he tried to put a stop to the bombing by informing Smith that he was not happy about the missions. But he says in a sworn affidavit that Smith replied: “This is what Avient is there for and it is part of the fun of Avient’s activities.”
Last week Pelham spoke to The Sunday Times about his clandestine mission in the Congo and said he had discovered that Avient crews were not only rolling crude bombs out of the backs of their aircraft but strafing from a MI-24 helicopter gunship.
“All the aircraft that were being used by Avient were kitted out on the back with rollers on the floor,” Pelham said. “We then constructed special pallets that could slide along the rollers to deploy bombs out of the back. And we rigged them so that as the pallets rolled towards the back the safety catch on the bombs would come off.”
()He added: “Bombs were being dropped from high altitude and there was no accuracy in it. It was blanket bombing.”
At one point, Pelham said, he learnt that Avient crews were to drop aviation-fuel bombs, which he knew to be “very destructive”. He said he had foiled this by claiming he did not know how to arm the bombs and that nobody else should try because they had sophisticated pressure devices that could detonate on change of altitude.
Just before he arrived, an Antonov 12 cargo plane loaded with bombs had blown up while taking off from Mbandaka airfield. All six Avient crewmen had died.
Pelham’s testimony is to be presented with other documentary evidence to Lord Goldsmith, the attorney general, by Rights and Accountability in Development (RAID), an Oxford-based group campaigning for corporate responsibility in the Congo.
Tricia Feeney, the group’s executive director, said: “In view of the gravity of the allegations and the evidence that RAID has compiled we are calling on the attorney general to instigate a full investigation into whether the activities of Andrew Smith as director of Avient during the war in the Congo constitute complicity in war crimes.”
The development may embarrass the government. Smith has claimed that he cleared his operations with the British high commission in Harare, the Zimbabwean capital, where Avient is registered, and that diplomats were aware of his role in providing aircrews for the Congo government.
Also the Department of Trade and Industry has previously exonerated Smith of mercenary activities in the Congo following evidence presented by the United Nations.
In 2002, a UN panel of experts named Avient among companies whose activities in the Congo were alleged to have breached international norms. In 2004, however, the DTI found that a number of allegations were unsubstantiated. It accepted that the company was “working within a contractual arrangement with the officially recognised government in the area”.
RAID is to press the DTI to reopen its investigation into whether Avient breached the guidelines of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), to which Britain adheres.
Much of the bombing in the Congo in 1999 and 2000 was directed at rebel forces backed by Ugandan troops in Equator province. More than 200,000 people were forced to flee to neighbouring countries and thousands more survived in the forest.
According to Feeney, schools and hospitals were hit and Equator province now has more problems with unexploded ordnance than anywhere else in the Congo.
Smith has denied responsibility for the actions of his aircrews in the Congo. He said: “It is a matter of record that I worked for a company which assisted the government of the DRC to locate crews to fly transport aircraft and helicopters.
“It is also a matter of record that the company was not responsible for the activities of any crew. This lay directly with the legally recognised government of the country. It was also a policy that the company would not comment on matters of state or government.
“The company I was working for at the time was not a UK entity and its activities were conducted with full disclosure to the authorities relevant to its base of operations.”
He now runs his Avient air cargo business from his Wiltshire home, a world away from the war-scarred Congo, and says his fleet of aircraft fly the world. A former officer in the Queen’s Gurkha Engineers, Smith is a well-known local figure. He recently presented the prize to the winner of the ladies’ race at a Royal Artillery point-to-point at Larkhill.
Pelham is doing security work for governments in the Middle East and Africa.
Additional reporting: Brian Johnson-Thomas
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DAS are trying a number of measures to stay in the air since their grounding, some planes returning to owner in US, and other distributed to other operators on a "pay as you go" basis in the hope of floating.
If you fly secondary routes, at secondary rates, and then still mixing with the likes of Avient, your fate is inevitable.
Avient "proudly profess" to owning all these planes while they merely hold exclusive usage agreement with the owners.
Who knows where Avient's AOC is based ? - bet its Zimbabwean. After the allegations of Avients collusion with, and services to the Zimbabwean Government during the war in the DR Congo, should the European Union not question this company's existance, how it came about, or perhaps which Zimbabwean Air Marshals and Ministers hold a stake in the company. Other neighbouring countries were scrutinised and judged on such issues and it would only be fair for the rest to be done, likewise.
Impossible that Mugabe chased all whitey's off their farms and out of the country, while these mercenaries were for their trouble rewarded with an Air Services License and AOC. Stories in the industry also circulating about the origin of their IL-76 that flies in Africa. Worst of all, that this company who played such an instrumental role to support the Zimbabwe Air Force in the DRC conflict, - today use this dubious and very aged IL-76 to fly support missions for the South African National Defence Force peace keeping operations in Africa - even to areas of the DRC where Avient was earlier alleged to be colluding with Forces bombing those areas and the population.
Perhaps a fellow Russian aviator or somebody with access to the IL Design Buro can check out the original "African" purchaser of this Z registered IL-76, and determine when last it saw the inside of the Design Buro for an official fuselage "life extension".
If you fly secondary routes, at secondary rates, and then still mixing with the likes of Avient, your fate is inevitable.
Avient "proudly profess" to owning all these planes while they merely hold exclusive usage agreement with the owners.
Who knows where Avient's AOC is based ? - bet its Zimbabwean. After the allegations of Avients collusion with, and services to the Zimbabwean Government during the war in the DR Congo, should the European Union not question this company's existance, how it came about, or perhaps which Zimbabwean Air Marshals and Ministers hold a stake in the company. Other neighbouring countries were scrutinised and judged on such issues and it would only be fair for the rest to be done, likewise.
Impossible that Mugabe chased all whitey's off their farms and out of the country, while these mercenaries were for their trouble rewarded with an Air Services License and AOC. Stories in the industry also circulating about the origin of their IL-76 that flies in Africa. Worst of all, that this company who played such an instrumental role to support the Zimbabwe Air Force in the DRC conflict, - today use this dubious and very aged IL-76 to fly support missions for the South African National Defence Force peace keeping operations in Africa - even to areas of the DRC where Avient was earlier alleged to be colluding with Forces bombing those areas and the population.
Perhaps a fellow Russian aviator or somebody with access to the IL Design Buro can check out the original "African" purchaser of this Z registered IL-76, and determine when last it saw the inside of the Design Buro for an official fuselage "life extension".
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The last Avient / DC-10 -rumour- I heard was that they were trying to get out of the deal for the 3rd ac, apparently now that DAS is able to operate in Europe again A.S. is worried about the competition 
AAL, The IL-76 seems to have come from 'Airlink Zimbabwe'
I'm surprised that 'finnman' and 'goma' havn't been along to defend their leader.....
Oh, hang-on, 'finnman' was their Ops Manager....... Given the first post in this thread I wonder if there's a bit of a story there!!
Cheers!!
AAO
AAL, The IL-76 seems to have come from 'Airlink Zimbabwe'
I'm surprised that 'finnman' and 'goma' havn't been along to defend their leader.....
Oh, hang-on, 'finnman' was their Ops Manager....... Given the first post in this thread I wonder if there's a bit of a story there!!Cheers!!
AAO
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Hi AfgAirOps, dont think they'll find it difficult to get out of the third aircraft deal because like all their others just mere measures and arrangements for convenience. Hear DAS is also getting more busy again on other routes and flying ME to Africa so presume for time being at least they will need the aircraft.
If rumour is anything to go by it will indeed be very interesting to trace the origin, purchaser, and delivery process of the IL-76 - and to learn, apart from LK, who the other local Zimbabwean shareholders in Avient are - equally to see the official Design Buro - fuselage life extension of this 1970's (one of the very first produced) IL-76.
Know of people standing accused in The Hague for less, or otherwise hounded out of business.
Who is protecting this crowd - and why?
If rumour is anything to go by it will indeed be very interesting to trace the origin, purchaser, and delivery process of the IL-76 - and to learn, apart from LK, who the other local Zimbabwean shareholders in Avient are - equally to see the official Design Buro - fuselage life extension of this 1970's (one of the very first produced) IL-76.
Know of people standing accused in The Hague for less, or otherwise hounded out of business.
Who is protecting this crowd - and why?
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Regret to have continued the Avient saga on this thread as I see after my own forum search that there has been extensive discussion about Avient in the past. Perhaps the mods can consider, merge and bring back to life as one again.
The earlier posts and discussions however just seemed to have gone nowhere with some critical and probing questions left unanswered.
AfgAirOps eludes that Avient's IL-76 was previously owned by Zim Express. Rumour is rather that it was acquired by Zimbabwe Air Force and after it had served its use for the ZDF upon their withdrawal from the DRC, placed at the disposal of its current operators (Avient) in a mutually beneficial financial relationship by some very senior officers in the ZAF.
It's purchase may indeed even have been part of the package of services which Mr Andy Smith so flippantly refers to as having been provided to another country (outside Britain) and therefore is nobody else's business. Wonder if he would care to ask his buddies in Zimbabwe why they didnt have the same flippant oppinion about Mr Simon Mann's business.
Referring also to the IL's annual official life prolongations for ageing Russian aircraft, it would appear if the Zimbabwe CAA merely issue an annual C of A renewal for the aircraft without consideration of a Design Buro prolongation certficate.
It would not surpise to see these guy's jumping for other registrations because you cant fool all of the people all of the time. And if there is wonder about why the French never took steps against Avient, probably because the French were begging for traffick into Vatry, and Andy Smith's sister is married to the Airport Manager at Vatry.
The earlier posts and discussions however just seemed to have gone nowhere with some critical and probing questions left unanswered.
AfgAirOps eludes that Avient's IL-76 was previously owned by Zim Express. Rumour is rather that it was acquired by Zimbabwe Air Force and after it had served its use for the ZDF upon their withdrawal from the DRC, placed at the disposal of its current operators (Avient) in a mutually beneficial financial relationship by some very senior officers in the ZAF.
It's purchase may indeed even have been part of the package of services which Mr Andy Smith so flippantly refers to as having been provided to another country (outside Britain) and therefore is nobody else's business. Wonder if he would care to ask his buddies in Zimbabwe why they didnt have the same flippant oppinion about Mr Simon Mann's business.
Referring also to the IL's annual official life prolongations for ageing Russian aircraft, it would appear if the Zimbabwe CAA merely issue an annual C of A renewal for the aircraft without consideration of a Design Buro prolongation certficate.
It would not surpise to see these guy's jumping for other registrations because you cant fool all of the people all of the time. And if there is wonder about why the French never took steps against Avient, probably because the French were begging for traffick into Vatry, and Andy Smith's sister is married to the Airport Manager at Vatry.
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Z-ALT
Z-ALT is the new Avient machine, formerly 5X-ROY of DAS. It is a Boeing machine and Avient are taking the lease over from DAS who handed the airplane back when their earlier troubles began.
It seems to me that people are only to keen to express their opinions on rumours again and again(numerous previous threads). Surely your comments of others being tried in the Hague for less proves that if the authorities thought it were true enough then they would follow this through!
Seems Avient are only up for being tried by those who do not know the facts and have nothing better to do with their time!
You believe everything you read in the papers???
Seems Avient are only up for being tried by those who do not know the facts and have nothing better to do with their time!
You believe everything you read in the papers???