Norwegian
Defense Chief Haakon Bruun-Hansen admitted on Thursday that military
officials had done a poor job of selling several surplus vessels in 2012
and 2013, and he apologized for that at a parliamentary inquiry. The
vessels wound up under the control of paramilitary forces in Nigeria,
and a former military employee has been charged with corruption. “The
fact that the vessels have landed in Nigeria under Nigerian flag
reflects a breakdown in our systems, and I apologize for that,”
Bruun-Hansen said during a hearing before the Parliament’s disciplinary
committee. He was not defense chief at the time of the sales, but took
responsibility for what’s become a military scandal that extended into
his tenure. Norwegian regulations prohibit the sales or export of
material or services to private buyers who may arm the vessels and offer
them for use in areas of conflict, and those regulations were violated.
News
bureau NTB reported that Bruun-Hansen admitted that military officials
did not carry out a thorough check of the company, CAS Global, that
bought six missile torpedo boats (MTBs) and the support vessel KMN
Horten three years ago.
The vessels were sold after they’d
been stripped of weapons, rebuilt and repainted so that they could be
classified as civilian vessels. Representatives for CAS Global had also
declared that the vessels would sail under British flag and British
jurisdiction, and with European crews. Norway’s Foreign Ministry, which
is responsible for controlling exports of military material, then
cleared the sale. The Horten at one point was reported to be part of a
transaction involving anti-piracy efforts off Somalia.
Both the
defense and foreign ministries were under political leadership of the
former left-center government at the time, headed by Labour Prime
Minister Jens Stoltenberg who is now secretary general of NATO. Current
Foreign Minister Børge Brende, also testifying at Thursday’s hearing,
said that much remains unclear about the sale and export of the vessels,
and Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported that Brende had notified the
state prosecutor (Riksadvokaten) about possible criminal violations.
Dagbladet’s revelations The
so-called “Nigerian boats” scandal emerged after a series of reports in
newspaper Dagbladet, and several members of the parliamentary committee
noted on Thursday that a simple Internet search would have revealed
that CAS Global only had a postbox address. Defense department officials
nonetheless received the Nigerians who represented CAS Global and
wanted to inspect the vessels that were up for sale.
“Does this
mean that anybody can buy these boats, as long as they sign a
declaration?” asked Erik Skutle, a Member of Parliament for the
Conservatives. “Even terrorists? How on earth could this happen?”
Norwegian
Broadcasting (NRK) reported that Bruun-Hansen and the head of the
defense department’s logistics organization (FLO), Petter Jansen, tried
to answer the many questions that arose after Dagbladet revealed how the
Norwegian equipment landed in the hands of owners described as Nigerian
warlords. Another former Norwegian Coast Guard vessel, the KV Titran,
was also sold through a brokerage company in a transaction that both
Jansen and Bruun-Hansen also admitted did not comply with regulations.
It was sold on to a South African weapons trader, Nautic Africa, which
in turn sold it to another Nigerian company.
Corruption charges
Norwegian
and British police made three arrests in January in connection with the
sales. A former FLO employee who was responsible for sales has since
been charged with corruption and Jansen, his boss, admitted that his own
follow-up of the case had also been deficient. He claimed he since has
made many changes in the FLO as a result of the scandal. Harald
Sunde, who served as defense chief when the sales were conducted, also
apologized on Thursday and said he was disappointed over all the
mistakes made in connection with the vessel sales. He blamed a difficult
reorganization of FLO at the time for the breakdown. Now both
prosecutors and Norwegian police are investigating and more charges may
be filed.
Helge Thorheim, a Member of Parliament for the Progress
Party, told NTB that he thinks the defense department was under
pressure from the Defense Ministry to sell the vessels, to raise money
at a time of tight budgets. “But it’s very difficult to get to the
bottom of this case,” Thorheim told NRK.
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