Swiss War Materiel and Arms Exports

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Components for Saddam Hussein’s supergun

Goods category: War materiel

Portrait of Saddam Hussein (date not specified).

Public Domain (US-Regierungswerk; PD-USGov-CIA)

Von Roll and the Vaud-based trading company Eric Uldry SA were involved in supplying Gerald Bull’s Iraqi supergun project. Contracts signed in 1988 and 1989 covered hydraulic recoil-damping cylinders and other specialised gun components. Initial deliveries took place in December 1989, and components reached Iraq until April 1990. Further parts were seized in Frankfurt and Bern in May 1990. On 1 February 1996, the Federal Supreme Court convicted those responsible of violating the War Materiel Act. It rejected the argument that the militarily intended components were merely ordinary industrial products. Public debate identified Israel as a possible target of the planned Iraqi supergun. The range of up to 1’600 kilometres mentioned in a 1996 pre-trial report was a project specification.

Effect of the proposed War Materiel Act revision

Under the new Article 22b, the Federal Council could depart from all the licensing criteria in Article 22a under vaguely defined ‘exceptional circumstances’. The public would not have to be informed. The Federal Council could add Iraq to Annex 2 by amending the War Materiel Ordinance. This would remove the exclusion criterion based on participation in an armed conflict and make approval the rule. The Federal Council could refuse a licence only in exceptional cases. Article 18 paragraph 1 would abolish non-re-export declarations in the vast majority of cases. Weapons for Iraq could thus easily be supplied through a subsidiary or intermediary in a third country. The United States could serve as a third country, having, according to SIPRI, supplied substantial quantities of war materiel to Iraq in recent years (3’948 million TIV).

Countries

Companies

Time period

1988–1996

Sources