Swiss War Materiel and Arms Exports

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Anti-aircraft spare parts for Bahrain

Goods category: War materiel

Oerlikon GDF-003 35 mm twin gun, Taiwan, 13.08.2011.

CC BY-SA 3.0

Between June and September 2011, Switzerland exported war materiel worth just under 1.6 million Swiss francs to Bahrain. The deliveries were strongly criticised following the suppression of protests. The response to interpellation 11.4069 specified that the contested 2011 exports were spare parts for previously supplied anti-aircraft systems. For 2011, the Federal Council listed three approved applications for aircraft repairs and anti-aircraft spare parts. It denied that the deliveries mentioned had included small arms or armoured vehicles. In its 2012 response to motion 12.3360, it maintained the spare-parts exception, confirmed there had been no war materiel exports to Bahrain in the first quarter of 2012, and considered use of the 35 mm systems against the population unlikely, but not entirely impossible.

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 Bahrain 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 Bahrain 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 Bahrain in recent years (1’768 million TIV).

Countries

Conflicts

Time period

Exports in 2011; parliamentary responses in 2012

Sources