Swiss War Materiel and Arms Exports

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RUAG ammunition to Libyan rebels via Emir Hamad

Goods category: War materiel (ammunition); unclear (laser aiming devices)

Muammar Gaddafi at the EU–Africa summit, 29.11.2010.

CC BY 4.0

In 2011, RUAG ammunition was found with insurgents in Libya. Qatar had passed on the ammunition, authorised in 2009 and originally delivered to its armed forces, in breach of its non-re-export declaration. Qatar apologised and attributed the incident to a military logistics error. After two inspection visits, SECO lifted the temporary delivery ban in December 2011. It affected outstanding laser targeting devices from a deal worth 740’000 Swiss francs approved in January; devices worth 650’000 Swiss francs had already been delivered in April.

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 Qatar and Libya 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 Qatar and Libya 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: Qatar: United States (7’741 million TIV); Libya: Italy (27 million TIV).

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Time period

Ammunition approval in 2009; onward transfer and inspections in 2011

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