Hong Kong's container ports are being used to smuggle arms to one of Africa's most corrupt and repressive regimes under the cover of the worldwide timber trade, says an international watchdog group.
The illicit business with Liberia has become the focus of United Nations sanctions after the body's security council passed a resolution last week banning all trade in timber from the troubled West African state.
A report by the human rights and environmental group Global Witness has also identified several Hong Kong companies they believe are key players in the illegal arms trade, which sees Chinese-made AK-47s, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers off-loaded in Liberia.
The weapons are used to foment conflict and human rights abuses both in Liberia and in the neighbouring states of Ivory Coast and Sierra Leone, creating one of the most violence-racked regions in the world, the group says.
Global Witness, a non-governmental organisation which works to expose links between natural resource exploitation and human rights abuses, says the cover of the timber business is used in two ways - either directly, by shipping guns back on the boats which take the Liberian timber to the mainland; or by using the money paid for the logs to buy weapons.
China is a major importer of Liberian timber and often the money paid for the logs is used to buy weapons from Eastern Europe and Libya, the report claims. The Global Witness evidence emerged after a United Nations expert panel on Liberia found evidence of illicit shipments of arms to Liberia last year.