TRUTH BE TOLD: Swiss grenades sent to United Arab Emirates ended up by militant groups in Syria 21/09/2012

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Swiss grenades sent to United Arab Emirates ended up by militant groups in Syria 21/09/2012

Part of channel(s): 2011 Syrian uprising (current event)

An investigation conducted by the Swiss government confirmed that Swiss-made grenades, found with the armed rebels groups in Syria, had been exported years ago by Switzerland to the Untied Arabs Emirates (UAE). The investigation into this matter was launched after photographs were published in two Swiss newspapers in July showing grenades bearing the inscriptions "Offensive OHG92" and "SM 6-03-1" (manufactured by the Swiss state-owned Ruag company) in the possession of militant groups in the northern Syrian town of Marea. A total of 225,162 grenades were sent to the UAE armed forces.

They also mentioned that these grenades weren’t exported to Syria directly, Swiss arms exports to Syria were stopped in 1998.

"The UAE assured Switzerland in writing that apart from the hand grenades, no other war materiel imported from Switzerland has been re-exported," the Swiss state secretariat for economic affairs (SECO) said in a statement.

After the newspaper photo was published, Switzerland temporarily halted arms shipments to the UAE, the biggest buyer of Swiss arms in 2011. When the commission was set up to investigate the matter in July, however, Bern lifted a block on licenses for such shipments.

Swiss arms sales have regularly hit the news headlines over the past few years.
In 2011 weapons exports to Qatar were frozen after it was revealed that munitions sold to the Gulf state had shown up in Libya in an apparent violation of export regulations. The ban was lifted five months later. An investigation blamed a “military logistics error” for the re-export.

The UAE, who intervented together with Saudi Arabia in Bahrain and crushed the "Bahraini Uprising" against the autocratic rule by the King in 2011, was also in focus of an inquiry over the re-export of Swiss-built armoured vehicles from the UAE to Morocco in 2005.

Container in Aleppo.