Return to an Address of the Honourable the House of Commons
dated 18 July 1996 for the Appendices to the Report of the Inquiry into the Export of Defence Equipment and Dual-Use Goods to Iraq and Related Prosecutions laid before The House on 15 February 1996*

Volume Two
Section D Arms and Defence-Related Exports to Iraq
Chapter 7 Other Allegations of Illegal Arms Exports to Iraq

Excerpt:
(II) GLOBAL TECHNICAL AND MANAGEMENT SERVICES INTERNATIONAL LTD

Background to the Inquiry’s investigation of Global

D7.24 On 7 July 1993 Mr George Robertson MP wrote to the Inquiry. He enclosed a copy of an article, which had appeared in the Glasgow Herald newspaper in November 1992. *33 The article was entitled “How Britain helped prepare Iraq’s navy for battle” and reported that “With the end of the Iran/Iraq war in 1988, more than 200 kilometres of Iraq’s waterways were littered with war debris, including wrecks of military vessels and Iranian mines”. The article said that the paper had “investigated” a company based in Midlothian, Global Technology and Management Services (International) Ltd (Global), and had found that Global “had completed a £3.4m contract with the Iraqis... to clear Iraq’s offshore waterways of sunken war detritus and mines”. The article went on to allege that the contract “involved the transfer of hi-tech sea-survey, explosive and mine-clearance equipment to the Iraqi navy... [and] training the Iraqi navy in the latest techniques of hydrographic surveying, sonic systems and clearance diving.”

D7.25 The article further alleged that Global had never applied for export licences and said that “Instead the two directors, Mr Melvyn Blackburn and Mr Allan Mellor, had given details of the contract and discussed it with the British Embassy in Baghdad. Equipment for the contract was flown to Baghdad through Iraq’s national carrier from Heathrow Airport”. The paper went on to refer to an investigation by Customs into Global and its directors which it said “came to nought”.

D7.26 The Inquiry was, in response to its requests for Government documents, already in possession of some evidence recording the activities of Global and its directors. The evidence consisted of documents which had been submitted by Customs relating to an investigation by Customs ID which had been initiated following a visit in August 1989 by a VAT Control Officer to Oceano Instruments (UK) LTD (Oceano). Oceano was a subsidiary of a French company called Oceano (France) SA which was involved in “highly technical ocean surveys and plotting”. *34 During the visit the VAT control officer had examined Oceano files and had found that the company had supplied to Global an accoustic telecommand unit in May 1989 and ten underwater explosive trigger units in June 1989. *35 (The “trigger units” are elsewhere in the evidence described as triggers, transponders or detonators). The officer had also examined associated correspondence and concluded that the goods had been exported to Iraq by Global; but in the light of his examination of the company’s correspondence and his questioning of the company’s representative during the visit, he was left “in grave doubt that the items were exported under cover of the appropriate DTI licences”. *36 The matter had then been taken up by Customs ID.

D7.27 Against this background I considered it necessary to inquire more fully into the exports and the ID investigation.

Endnotes:

*33 - PLM/87

*34 - CE/457.1

*35 - CE/577.(3).24 and CE/577.(3).26

*36 - CE/457.2 D7.27 Against this background I considered it necessary to inquire more fully into the exports and the ID investigation.

* The Full report is available from The Stationery Office Ltd., PO Box 276, London, SW8 5DT.