Bulgarian government denies responsibility for arms deals with Sudan
SOFIA, Oct 26, 2004 (BGNES web site) — BETA’s and KAS Engineering Consortium’s licenses for foreign trade arms deals were revoked on 29 April 2002 and 12 June 2000 respectively. This is what the Economy Ministry said in connection with the information that penalties had been imposed on two Bulgarian companies for sales to one of six companies on the US blacklist of state sponsors of terrorism.
The Interdepartmental Council on Military Industrial Complex (MIC) and Mobilization Readiness revoked BETA’s license for foreign arms deals on 29 April 2002 because of the illegal export of spare parts for 122-mm howitzers to Sudan.
This was a gross violation of the embargo that the EU imposed on Sudan in 1994. Bulgaria joined the embargo by Decree 91 of the Council of Ministers. The KAS Engineering Consortium’s license expired on 12 June 2000 and has not been renewed since then.
According to preliminary information, the reason is that the company participated as a main contractor in an engineering project in Yarmuk [name as transliterated] in Sudan. At that time the company’s name was KAS Engineering Consortium. It was a consortium of several companies of the MIC.
The United States has informed the Foreign Ministry about the decision to impose penalties on the two companies and identified the state – Sudan – but has not specified the period when the violations were committed. The United States stated categorically that the Bulgarian government could not be linked with the companies’ operations in any way, the Economy Ministry also said.
From the BBC Monitoring Service