By Tito Drago
MADRID, Apr 10 1999 (IPS)

The government of Spain has failed to respect international standards governing trade in weapons, selling them to countries with poor human rights records, according to a new report by the Unesco chair at the Autonomous University of the city of Barcelona.

Published Monday by the influential Spanish weekly ‘Cambio 16’, in advance of its release, the study also detailed a list of “hidden sales” to 20 countries, which the government failed to report to parliament and the public.

According to the Unesco (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) chair, the executive branch concealed more than one billion dollars in exports of war materiel, most of which was sold from 1991 to 1996 under the socialist government of Felipe Gonzalez.

The Spanish section of Amnesty International, meanwhile, stressed that the two countries which accounted for 68 percent of total weapons purchases from Spain in 1997 were Turkey and Thailand, both of which have dismal human rights records.

Furthermore, in 1997 – under the current centre-right government of Jose Maria Aznar – Spain sold weapons to Iran and China, despite a European Union embargo on arms sales to those countries.

But Secretary of Industry and Trade Elena Pisonero said pledges of transparency made by parliament in March 1997 had been fulfilled to the letter, in accordance with the code of conduct approved by the European Union in May 1998.

With respect to Iran, she maintained that “there is no global embargo, but a bilateral blockade imposed by the United States, while the embargo against China does not refer to defence materiel.”

In 1997, Spain was the world’s fifth leading arms exporter, after the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom and France.

Spain’s top clients in the Americas that year were the United States (60 million dollars in sales), Uruguay (30 million), Brazil (three million), and Guatemala, Chile, Canada and Mexico (two million each).

Neighbouring Morocco, with 60 million dollars in purchases from Spain, topped the list in Africa, followed by Egypt (30 million) and South Africa (12), while the main Middle East buyers were the United Arab Emirates (70 million dollars), Israel (30) and Saudi Arabia (10).

In Asia and Oceania, Spain’s biggest customers were Thailand (more than 300 million dollars), Singapore (120) and South Korea (10). And in Europe, Turkey headed the list with 120 million dollars in arms purchases, followed by France (50), the United Kingdom (33), Germany (30) and Italy (seven million).

The biggest secret arms shipments detected by the Unesco chair went to Burkina Faso, Chile, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Thailand, Turkey and Uruguay.

Sales to Uruguay could involve a system of “electronic warfare contracted with Indra,” Spain’s state-owned company of communications and informatics technology, in 1993, the report states.

Professor Vicen Fisas said the gap between official and real figures was the result of “the executive branch’s determined interest in camouflaging real exports of arms.”

One tactic used, he said, was to register exports in other tariff categories. Weapons are thus sometimes classed as “metallic products,” or registered on the basis of their parts, in an attempt to keep exports from appearing as sales of war materiel, he explained.

For example, the Spanish government does not consider C-212 and CN-235 transport aircraft, which head the list of Spain’s military exports, as war materiel, he pointed out.

‘Cambio 16’ quoted a former foreign trade secretary under the socialist government, Apolonio Ruiz Ligero, who said that just because ashtrays or irons could be used as weapons did not mean they should be banned as exports.

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