India Was Aware Of Embargo Violations In Trade With Bofors

A top Swedish official has charged that the Indian government had dealt with Bofors despite being fully aware that it was flouting its own embargo on trade with the Swedish arms maker.

Staffan Hansson, the deputy supremo of the Inspectorate of Strategic Products (ISP), said: The Government of India had all along been fully aware of the alleged violations of their unilaterally imposed embargo against import of Bofors-manufactured products into India.

Analysts here said that Hanssons statement, made during an interview on a Swedish television news programme, Aktuelt, had vindicated Bofors stand that, culpability, if any, for such alleged violations lies entirely with the Indian government.

Lars Svensson, a constitutional expert in Sweden, said: The ball now lies very smugly in the Indian court and it is up to them to either return the serve or accept defeat. The same feeling prevails in the highest political and parliamentary circles here.

Swedish judicial authorities have maintained throughout the past decade that Sweden has nothing to hide or feel guilty about.

An opposition MPsaid on condition of anonymity that despite all the charges against the (Swedish) government, we cannot help feeling, in the face of these latest disclosures and lack of response to them by the Government of India, that the Swedish role in the Indo-Bofors 1986 Howitzer deal may have been much misunderstood.

The MP said, The rejection by Swedish authorities of Indian demands to release facts may have, after all, resulted from a certain sense of courtesy ... to spare the Government of India great embarrassment. A Swedish weapons researcher has claimed that Bofors had violated a ban imposed by the Indian government by not only supplying spares for a grenade launcher used by the Indian Army but even for its controversial Howitzers whose sale led to charges of bribery and corruption.

Involving the highest officials in the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhis administration. Even after 11 years, the case remains under investigation by Indian authorities.

Henrik Westander, of the non-governmental Swedish Peace and Arbitration, said that Bofors used a middle company for exporting vital spare parts to the broken down field Howitzers in Kashmir.