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Czechoslovakia's niche in the arms trade has been dependent on customers who are too poor to afford Western weapons, which are generally of higher quality, and those who for political reasons are denied access to them. Thus Prague has done a thriving business in exporting the L-39 jet trainer ($1.9 million apiece) to Ethiopia and other countries; the plane can easily be converted into a fighter or fighter-bomber for customers unable to pay for Western or Soviet aircraft. The lightweight Skorpion machine pistol sells for less than $220, the Israeli-made Uzi at least twice that. Czechoslovakia annually sells about 500 T-72 tanks, at $250,000 apiece; three-fourths have gone to Libya and other Arab clients, the balance to China. America's M-1 Abrams tank, by comparison, sells for $2.5 million and, under U.S. law, cannot be sold to such countries as Libya, Syria or Iran.
To their credit, earlier this year Czechoslovakia's new leaders halted exports of Semtex until chemical markers, detectable by airport and other security devices, could be added to the explosive. The government also claims to have shut down its tank plant in the Slovak town of Martin.
While officials pledge to convert most of the country's military production capacity to civilian use, industry experts in Prague doubt that it can be done. "You can't just turn a tank factory into a car factory," says one specialist. "Besides, as we try to revive this economy, we'll need all the hard currency we can get."
It has evidently been easier for the government to reduce other forms of military assistance. According to members of the country's Red Berets antiterrorist unit, there were often so many clandestine arms buyers in Prague under the old regime that the unit spent much of its time guarding hostile factions against one another. Today the Communist Party hotel just outside the city center, once reputed to be a safe haven for terrorists of the I.R.A., the Red Brigades and other European groups, is closed. At the Police Academy Foreign Branch, as the training camp outside Brno is called, 60 Afghans were sent home before Christmas, and there is speculation that the entire operation, which once trained up to 600 men at a time, will soon be shut down.