Swiss War Materiel and Arms Exports

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Arms licences for Generalissimo Pinochet and subsequent transfers

Goods category: War materiel

Augusto Pinochet, around 1974; portrait crop.

CC BY 2.0 CL

During the Pinochet dictatorship, Chile received production licences for Mowag Piranhas and SIG assault rifles. Design documents and production machinery were transferred to Chile for the licensed manufacture of SIG weapons. During the Iran–Iraq War, SIG supplied assault rifles to Iraq via Famae in Chile. Chilean-built Piranha armoured vehicles were reportedly supplied to Iran via Cardoen during the Iran–Iraq War. SIG assault rifles from Chile were seized in Hungary while en route to Croatia. At the time, Croatia was subject to a UN arms embargo. During the 2019 protests in Chile, the army used Piranha armoured vehicles and SIG SG 540 assault rifles. The vehicles and rifles were manufactured in Chile under Swiss licences.

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. For Croatia, as a current Annex 2 state, Article 22a paragraph 2bis 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. The Federal Council could add Chile, Iraq and Iran 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 Chile, Iraq and Iran 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: Chile: United States (468 million TIV); Iraq: United States (3’948 million TIV).

Countries

Conflicts

Companies

Time period

Licensing during the Pinochet dictatorship; onward transfers in the 1980s/1990s; use in 2019

Sources