Swiss War Materiel and Arms Exports

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Opalm from a Swiss business network for Egypt and Indonesia

Goods category: War materiel

Gamal Abdel Nasser, 1968.

Public Domain laut Commons (PD-Egypt)

Burma ordered enough Opalm to fill a thousand bombs, together with accessories. In 1954, Switzerland refused the Opalm export; Werner Oswald’s company moved manufacturing to Karlsruhe. The export of a thousand Swiss bomb casings was nevertheless approved. Burma was subsequently supplied from abroad. Following reports in the Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv, Swiss company Patvag AG confirmed in March 1953 that it had delivered around 25 tonnes of napalm to Egypt. A Swiss application to export Opalm to Indonesia was rejected in 1957. A separate purchase from production in Karlsruhe is documented for 1960. The incendiary weapon developed by Werner Oswald’s company was manufactured abroad and later used in Indonesia’s war in East Timor. Egypt bought Opalm from the business run by Werner Oswald and PATVAG involving the Swiss-developed incendiary weapon. The Egyptian air force used it in the North Yemen civil war from 1962 to 1967. Commercial production had been moved to Germany after a Swiss export ban. Algeria’s FLN obtained Opalm from PATVAG’s business network. German partner Walter Heck supplied the incendiary agent together with flamethrowers declared as pest-control equipment. PATVAG director Erwin Widmer tried to export bomb fuzes for an Opalm demonstration in Pakistan as plastic containers. Customs stopped the false declaration. A corrected export application was approved; Widmer received a fine. Jordan bought an unspecified quantity of Opalm from the Swiss-run incendiary-weapons business that had been relocated to Germany. Syria bought an unspecified quantity of Opalm from the Swiss-run incendiary-weapons business that had been relocated to Germany.

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 Myanmar, Egypt, Indonesia, Algeria, Pakistan, Jordan and Syria 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 Myanmar, Egypt, Indonesia, Algeria, Pakistan, Jordan and Syria could thus easily be supplied through a subsidiary or intermediary in a third country. For example, the following states could serve as third countries, having supplied substantial quantities of war materiel in recent years according to SIPRI: Myanmar: France (20 million TIV); Egypt: France (4’607 million TIV); Indonesia: United States (1’248 million TIV); Algeria: Germany (1’015 million TIV); Pakistan: United States (2’134 million TIV); Jordan: United States (677 million TIV).

Countries

Conflicts

Companies

Time period

PATVAG incendiary-weapons business from 1953; Opalm relocation from 1954; combat use into the 1970s

Sources