Swiss War Materiel and Arms Exports

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US weapons for the apartheid regime via Zurich

Goods category: War materiel (firearms and ammunition; historical transit and onward delivery).

Racial segregation sign on Muizenberg beach, Cape Town, June 1985.

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South African dealer Richard Beck had US weapons declared as sporting goods. A shipment sent to Zurich on 23 November 1977 was forwarded to South Africa by Gondrand Bros. on 29 November. Another shipment containing 140 firearms and 5’000 cartridges was dispatched in January 1978 and intercepted in Chicago in February. US authorities replaced all the weapons except one revolver with books and allowed the shipment to continue under surveillance to Zurich. There, after checking the accompanying documents, the freight forwarder refused onward shipment; Swiss customs seized the remaining revolver. On 4 February 1980, the US appeals court overturned Beck’s post-verdict acquittal, reinstated the jury’s guilty verdicts for aiding attempted illegal export and false customs declarations, and remanded the case for sentencing.

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 South Africa 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 South Africa could thus easily be supplied through a subsidiary or intermediary in a third country. The Netherlands could serve as a third country, having, according to SIPRI, supplied substantial quantities of war materiel to South Africa in recent years (90 million TIV).

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Time period

1977–1978; US appeal judgment in 1980

Sources