Portugal breaks own RI arms embargo: Paper
Portugal breaks own RI arms embargo: Paper
LISBON (Reuter): Portugal's government faced fresh
embarrassment yesterday from a press report that it flouted its
own arms embargo against Indonesia and the opposition called on
Defense Minister Fernando Nogueira to quit.
The government said it was investigating a report by the
right-wing weekly Independente that a defense ministry company,
the General Office of Aeronautical Equipment (OGMA), serviced the
engines of at least two Indonesian military helicopters.
Lisbon severed all ties with Jakarta after the former
Portuguese colony of East Timor integrated with Indonesia in
1975.
The defense ministry said it had launched an urgent inquiry
and Socialist opposition leader Antonio Guterres urged Prime
Minister Anibal Cavaco Silva to sack Nogueira.
The latest embarrassment for OGMA comes two months after
Independente revealed the firm had violated Portugal's official
neutrality in the Angolan civil war by servicing Russian-built
warplanes for the Angolan government air force.
Cavaco Silva refused an offer by Nogueira to resign on that
occasion, but the head of OGMA resigned and President Mario
Soares vetoed the reappointment of air force chief Narciso Mendes
Dias for a further term.
Independente said OGMA had confirmed that it serviced the
engines of at least two Indonesian military helicopters for 20
billion escudos ($125,000) in 1993 as part of work sub-contracted
from engine manufacturers Turbomeca in France.
But OGMA issued a statement saying it had not been aware of
who the helicopter engines belonged to at the time.
"(OGMA) received two Turmo engines on April 6, 1993 whose
commercial documentation sent by Turbomeca contained no reference
to the user (Indonesian armed forces)," it said.
The reported servicing of Indonesian military helicopter
engines occurred just 18 months after a Dili incident in which
more than 50 East Timorese died in a violent demonstration.
Guterres urged Cavaco Silva yesterday to sack his defense
minister "to save the cause of Timor and Portuguese diplomacy".
"If he (Cavaco Silva) doesn't act immediately, no Portuguese
ambassador or foreign minister will have any credibility,"
Guterres told reporters.