Ladina Triaca and Lukas Lippert
It is a deal that should no longer be possible in the future. In the coming spring, the Swiss armaments company Rheinmetall Air Defense will export two state-of-the-art anti-aircraft guns to Qatar. The Qatari army is expected to install them right next to the stadiums at the 2022 World Cup. The cannons are designed to protect players and fans from attacks from the air. Rheinmetall collects CHF 246 million for this.
But Qatar is not a model country. The Qatari government is cooperating with the Taliban in Afghanistan and last year allowed an execution for the first time in a long time. Since the 2010 World Cup, more than 6500 guest workers from India, Pakistan and Nepal are said to have died while building stadiums and roads. Arms deals with such states should no longer be possible in the future. Parliament decided that on Wednesday.
Annual training camp
Regardless of this, the cannons are currently being manufactured in the middle of Zurich-Oerlikon. Fabian Ochsner (64), CEO of Rheinmetall Air Defense, enthuses: “Our air defense system is a technological masterpiece. We meet a Frankish man two kilometers away. “
So that the Qataris can operate the weapons, some of his employees will also travel to Qatar. They are supposed to train the Qatari military for 52 weeks. This emerges from documents from the Department of Foreign Affairs (EDA), which the “observer” and the viewer were able to inspect based on the Public Information Act. Between the many blackened lines, it can also be seen that two employees are to be stationed “permanently on site” for technical assistance.
Human rights violations in Qatar
When assessing the export request for the controversial million dollar deal two years ago, the Foreign Affairs Department of Federal Councilor Ignazio Cassis (60) came to the conclusion that human rights are being violated “systematically and seriously” in Qatar. Nevertheless, both the FDFA and the lead State Secretariat for Economic Affairs of Federal Councilor Guy Parmelin (61) approved the export of the air defense systems.
Parliament tightened gun rules
The reason that the deal was possible is an exception that the Federal Council incorporated into the War Material Ordinance in 2014 under pressure from the armaments lobby. Since then, war material has been allowed to be delivered to countries with serious human rights violations, provided there is “a low risk” that it will be used for this purpose.
After the Council of States, the National Council also spoke out on Wednesday for a general ban on arms exports to civil war countries and countries with serious human rights violations.
Specifically, a majority of parliamentarians support the Federal Council’s counter-proposal to the correction initiative. Surprisingly, it even exacerbates this. The parliament has thus taken up practically all the demands of the initiators around the group for a Switzerland without an army (GSoA) as well as the SP, the Greens and the BDP, which is now part of the center party.
Disappointment at Rheinmetall
The joy in the left camp was correspondingly great. Some national councilors cheered so loudly that Council President Andreas Aebi (62, SVP) admonished them with the words: “We are not in the circus here.” And the authors of the correction initiative immediately announced that they would withdraw their initiative. They no longer need a referendum.
Rheinmetall boss Fabian Ochsner thinks the National Council decision is wrong. This means that Swiss arms companies will be at a disadvantage compared to their foreign competitors in the future. He also fears that it will soon no longer be possible to deliver ammunition and spare parts for existing weapons to the Middle East.
His huge deal with the Qatari sheikhs is unlikely to be affected by the tightening: If the new export rules take effect, the two air defense systems should have already arrived in Qatar.